We Three Hearts: A Lucaya Project Alternate Story
by moonswirl
Summary: Spinning off from the third LP story, ongoing in 2019. PLEASE read the A/N at the top of the first chapter! Maya and Lucas, in their second year of college, find their future plans forced to change with the discovery that they are expecting... Updating weekly every Monday.
1. Four Sticks

**_A/N: BEFORE YOU START READING!_**_ Hey guys! Welcome! This story is an alternate timeline stemming from my Lucaya Project stories/universe. They are updated daily, presently in the third year/story, and as suggested by a few readers, this story here picks up from a part of that story before diverging into its own timeline. It takes place in that world and will continue to, so if you haven't read the previous stories, you might want to go and check them out:_

_"A Hart in Texas" (LP 2017) (all of it)  
"Our Brand New Years" (LP 2018) (all of it)  
"Endings,_ _Beginnings,__ and __the Journey in Between" (LP 2019) (chapter 1 through 118, at which point the story splits, continuing one way there, and another way here!)_

_Hope that all makes sense... Anyway, this story will be updated weekly, every Monday!_

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_Chapter 1  
Four Sticks_

They weren't going to return to the party, it was sort of agreed upon without ever being spoken. So, before they would actually look, she'd set herself to the task of removing their makeup and, when that was done, they'd changed out of their costumes. It wasn't the ghost and the vampire who were about to find out what those tests had to say.

Lucas and Maya sat together, looking at the contents of the towel before them. Somehow, all four tests had ended up face down, which was just as well. They could turn them over and see what they showed. Everything else, the boxes, the instructions, had been set aside.

"I can't…" she breathed, looking back at him. It would have been so much easier if they hadn't been stuck waiting so long. It had made the whole thing feel so much bigger than it already was and now… now it felt like she wouldn't remember how to breathe in a few seconds.

"Do you want me to?" he offered. He was starting to feel it, too.

"No, I… I can do it, I…" She wasn't even moving her hand. "Okay, turn one over," she finally relented. They shared a look. Lucas sat forward, looking to the four tests.

"This one was one line for no, two for yes, right?" he asked, pointing to the one on the left. She nodded. He reached out and turned it over.

There were two lines.

It took a moment before they could both see those lines and remember what they meant, as though the knowledge – which had been there all of ten seconds prior – had been shoved from their minds the moment they saw what was there right before their eyes. It took a moment, and it didn't happen all at once. Maya was the first one to get there, and when she gasped, her hand suddenly clasped to her mouth, it echoed on to Lucas. Two lines… two lines meant yes.

He looked over at her, and his face looked just like hers. Startled, overwhelmed, and just a bit breathless.

"I-It could… It could be a mistake, turn the next one," she pulled her hand back down, reaching for that first stick like she needed to see it from up close, to hold the thing in her hands and make sure it was real. "That one's plus or minus, yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's…" He flipped it over, and there was a plus sign staring back at them, clear as day. This time it didn't take them near as much time to process it, even if it did feel like their heartbeats had just gotten even more amped up. She snatched that one up, too, caring very little about the fact that she'd peed on this thing. "Maya…" he looked at her, his face unable to express anything beyond shock.

"Next one has the lines again," she shook her head and pointed to the remaining tests. Almost like he had seen enough to see where this was going, he didn't so much turn it over as he picked it up and handed it to her, right side up, so she could see for herself this one was positive, too. She received it, joined it to the others. She looked at him, held his gaze even as she reached blindly for the last test. This one would leave no room for interpretation. She held it up for him to see, and the look on his face told her all she needed to know. _Pregnant._

They sat there, looking at one another, they couldn't say for how long, as the revelation settled in them, beyond the first hit of discovery and into established fact. Finally, he was the one to speak and break that silence, saying the words because he had to, someone had to…

"You're pregnant… You're really pregnant…"

"Either that or I really lucked out finding the four broken tests," she breathed, looking down to the four sticks gripped in her hand. "Should I take the other ones?" she looked back up to him. "I have them, and…" Before he could say anything, she was up and moving to dig the other four boxes from the back of the closet.

"Maya, wait…" he went to her, slowly pulling her back until she turned to face him.

"Is it just me or does it smell like urine in there now? Maybe… Do they go bad if you wait too long?" she frowned. Looking at her, he could tell she wasn't going to be satisfied until she'd checked, so he moved around her and found the other tests for her.

"Do you need water?" he asked. She took the boxes.

"Nope."

He followed her out of their room and back into the bathroom, where they went through the whole thing again, unwrapping the tests, laying them out before her. One by one, she picked them up and set them down when she was done. She went and washed her hands as he set the timer. When she turned back to him, he couldn't translate the thoughts in her eyes, but he did what he could. He stepped up to her and wrapped her in his arms. She pressed her head into his chest, locking her arms around him, too, and they waited.

She needed to know, needed to be sure. She knew it was silly and she was probably being irrational. She knew this new set of four would say the same thing as the other one, and it wasn't like she was hoping they would say any different, but she needed to humor this frenzy in her mind before she let herself cross into acceptance and the all too important question… What now?

The timer rang, uninterrupted this time, and as they went on standing together the way they did, he could just turn his eyes from over her head and look down to where the new tests lay, face up. _Two lines, plus sign, two lines… pregnant._ He bowed his head, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, and that was all she needed to know.

"Woah…" she spoke, barely above a whisper. It was real, it was happening… There was a miniscule little sprout of a human being inside her, one they had created together, him and her.

"Are you… are you okay?" he asked.

"If I say yes, will that freak you out?" she spoke quietly after a few seconds.

"Why would it freak me out?" A few seconds more went by before she looked up at him.

"Because… Because I'm not scared," she admitted. "Because I know it's going to complicate things so much, and it's not… ideal… that it's happening now, but inside… I'm not just okay, Lucas, I'm… glad, I'm happy… I want to cry, for no other reason that we're having this baby, you and me… And maybe I _should_ be scared instead."

"No," he shook his head, his hands moving to cup her face as he looked at her, the woman he loved… who was now carrying their child. "Happy's good," he insisted, feeling the expression on his face release at last, settling into a smile and a stinging at his eyes which would turn into tears of joy before long, just as _her_ eyes were doing now.

"Happy's good," she repeated as he hugged her again, kissing the side of her head, her closed eye, and her lips… He lifted her right off the floor, and she held on tight even as she laughed.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked, and it took her a few seconds to remember. It was still Halloween, the party was still going on. They _could_ go back, maybe manage to enjoy it now, but oh… Just the thought of going back down there right now, the press of so many people, the heat, the smells… Was this the pregnancy already, or just plain old common sense? Either way, she didn't feel like going back.

"We should pick all this stuff up," she nodded back to indicate the new tests, the boxes… Sooner or later, she'd have to tell the others, but she wasn't going to have them find out this way. Willow knew, Riley knew… Well, they knew about the maybe, not the yes. She'd have to tell them for sure, tomorrow at the latest. Then there'd be their roommates… And their other friends… Their parents… _Their parents…_

"I'll take care of it," Lucas told her. "Do you want anything from downstairs?"

"All good," she shook her head with a smile. "I'll wait for you back there," she nodded out the door before moving toward their room.

She still had those first four sticks grasped in her hand. She didn't think she'd actually let them go the whole time, just clamped two or three fingers around them and went about her business. She went to her nightstand, found an empty bag there and slipped the sticks inside before rolling the rest of the bag around and setting the bundle back in the drawer. She wasn't sure why she held on to them, but right now they were her proof and she wanted them there.

After a few seconds, her curiosity won out as she went to the mirror hanging on the closet door. She stood in front of it, looking at herself. She turned to the side, flattened her shirt to meet the curve of her body for a moment before just pulling it up, tugging the top of her pants down just enough that she could see if there might have been anything there to see… All these weeks she'd been going to the gym with Lucas, it had been starting to show, and now… She tilted her way this way and that, tried to angle herself and see… She wasn't that far along, she couldn't be, but then she'd always been tiny, in more ways than one, so maybe it would show up already.

Maybe she was imagining it, but she could swear there was this curve to her that hadn't been there a few weeks ago. If not for what she had just found out, she might have dismissed it as school stress messing with her body, but now…

When she heard the floor creak, she startled and let her shirt fall back down and turned around to see who… It was Lucas, back again, and she breathed out. He had a smile about him, the one she'd catch on him sometimes when he would have been watching her without her knowing. This one though, it had an added layer of emotion. He was so happy, too, just like her, and now…

"We can do this, right?" she asked him. He looked back at her, about to speak, and she held up her hand to stop him. "Don't just say 'yes' to make me feel better, answer the question," she begged, taking a step toward him. He shut the door and walked over to her, finding her hands to hold in his own.

"You and me, the whole time we've known each other, so many things happened that weren't what we expected for our lives. But they happened, and look at where we are now. Dating five years as of… just a few hours from now, living out here together, with school, and work, and the band, and we're making it work. Because you, Maya Hart, are one of if not the strongest person I know. Doesn't mean you don't have plenty of insecurities, it means you never stop fighting through. And me, my life was never better than what it became when you came into it.

"And now this? A baby… _Our_ baby," he smiled, his lower lip trembling with the feelings coursing through him, "That might be the most unexpected thing to happen to us right now, but it might just be the best one yet. Can we do this? Neither of us has it in them to do anything else except to do whatever it takes so that we _can_ do it. Yes. We can, and we will do this, you and me. Okay?"

She stared back at him for a moment, her head slowly starting to move into a nod. She gave his hands a squeeze and he leaned in to kiss her.

"You're always so good at that…" she breathed.

"Kissing you?" he joked.

"Obviously," she joked back. "I mean tonight has put that proof in the bag." He chuckled. "I mean the whole rousing speech thing. Maybe you should be the one writing songs."

"You're my whole inspiration," he shrugged.

"See? You're doing it again."

"Can I see?" he asked her now, "Before, when I came back in…"

"Oh, well…" She stepped back from him, pulling her shirt up again, pushing the waistband of her pants down again. "If I go like this…" she turned sideways, "What do you think? Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, or…"

"Here…" he blinked, awed, as he stepped up to her and set his hand to the spot she'd been inspecting.

"Might be a food baby, not just _the_ baby," she suggested. "We're going to need books. Now, if only I knew a guy who worked in a bookstore," she pondered.

"I'm going to have to sneak those out," he smirked. "If we don't tell people right away. I just remember, when your mom was going to have the twins, she kept telling me that just because I knew it didn't mean I could tell people, not for a while."

"Right…" she remembered, too, as he let go and she set her clothes back in place. "Maybe we can borrow Willow's books for now." He could just see her mind spinning in a handful of directions, considering so many little things they'd need to do, and look into, and buy…

"We're not going to get any of those tonight," he reminded her. "We're not going to figure out anything tonight. Before we get thrown into this tornado, it's just you and me, we're the only ones who have to know, and…"

"Three of us," she reminded him, and he smiled, or smiled more… He'd never really stopped.

"Three of us, right," he amended. "So let's just be happy." He took a look at the clock. "Look, it's November 1st… Five years…"

"Do I give the best presents or what?" she mock bragged.

"Pee sticks?" he teased.

"Hey, I am growing you a human, show some respect to the sprout," she 'warned.'

"Sorry, Sprout," he looked down at her before turning his eyes back to her. "Happy Anniversary."

"Happy Anniversary," she repeated with a genuine smile now. "Not to play favorites, but I think this one's gonna go in the books as the best one yet."

"What I'm hearing here is I need to find a way to top this… Okay, I can do that," he declared with confidence.

"I believe that," she smiled. They could just hear the music from downstairs, and he took hold of her hand, all she needed before she swayed into a dance with him. They might not have felt like going back downstairs, but it didn't mean the party had to be over. With everything they'd just learned, it was the opposite… The party was only just starting. Like any party, it would get chaotic and messy in places, but by the end of it they would know it had all been worth it.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

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_See you next week! - mooners_


	2. Good Morning, World

_Chapter 2_  
_Good Morning, World_

She didn't remember the dream she'd been having when she woke up, the morning after Halloween, except that it had left her feeling like her head was spinning, _something_ was spinning, something…

"Oh, here we go…" she muttered, slipping out of Lucas' arms like a pro before making a mad dash out of their room and into the bathroom, treating whoever else might have been awake to the sound of retching. Clearly, if she hadn't done the math the day before which had sent her buying eight pregnancy tests, _this_ wake-up call would have been… well, a wake-up call.

She didn't know who it was at first, except suddenly there was a hand on her back, and when she stopped being sick and the world seemed to clear up again a bit, that hand was running reassuringly up and down her back. She figured out that hadn't been Lucas when, after a beat, that first hand went away and another came to replace it and _that_ one was him, she knew. She reached out for that hand as she sat back on the ground. The mystery first hand was revealed as belonging to Chiara when it presented her with a wet cloth.

"I'm fine, I'm good," Maya told them both, her voice coming out shaky as she pressed the cloth to her face. "I'm totally super."

"Hangover?" Chiara asked sympathetically.

"No," Lucas told her, kneeling now to where Maya could see him. "Hey…"

"Morning," she breathed, promising with a look that she really was fine, no matter how rotten she felt on the inside. "No kissing right now, it'll be horrible," she gestured to her mouth.

"Maya?" Sophie's voice sounded, and the trio turned their heads to look at her. "What happened?"

"I…" she started to say, just as Dylan popped up next to Sophie.

"Hangover?" he asked.

"No," both Lucas and Maya replied as one. Maya looked to her boyfriend now, and her eyes said enough. _Too many people here._

"Look, I've got her," he turned to the others. "Thanks," he turned to Chiara, who gave him a nod. She left the bathroom with Sophie, and after tipping his head to Dylan in thanks for his concern, too, he pulled the bathroom door shut and turned back to Maya. "I woke up and you weren't there," he told her, taking the wet towel from her and moving to the sink to refresh it. "Then I heard the…"

"Don't… say it," she closed her eyes. "I don't want it to start again."

"Right…" he breathed out, sitting with her again.

For a minute or so, neither of them said a word. As he sat there, on the bathroom floor, all Lucas could think was the way he'd come running as soon as he'd figured out where she was. It was all starting… And this was going to keep happening for weeks, he knew. Last night, they'd gone to bed, and he couldn't sleep, so he'd gone and dived headlong into the internet, trying to inform himself about what would be happening to her, to the baby… Finally, around four in the morning, he'd managed to settle down and drift off to sleep.

"We're going to have to tell them," Maya spoke, and he looked at her.

"Have to?"

"What do you think's happening out there right now?" she pointed toward the door. "Five bucks Riley was already downstairs," she started. "And when the others go down there and start telling her I was… you know," she motioned to the toilet, scrunching her face, "She's going to put the pieces together. She knows I took the tests last night, and now this morning…"

"I know," he pointed to the bowl. She nodded. "We're going to have to tell them," he agreed. "Are you okay with that? We don't have to tell them. Even if Riley figures it out…" She chuckled.

"You think that Riley Matthews, upon discovering that her best friend of almost _fifteen years_ is having a baby, she will be the coolest cucumber in the room and give no reaction in the slightest?"

Almost to prove a point, at that very moment, they heard an extended squeal from downstairs.

"Pay up… _Dad_," Maya smiled. Oh, that word ran right through him. He smiled back, big and bright.

"Happy to."

When they finally left the bathroom and started down the stairs, they found all four of their roommates standing in the kitchen, whispering to one another. Lucas cleared his throat, and they all looked up, like a herd of deer in headlights.

"Pathetic," Maya shook her head judgingly. Riley tried to look away like she'd done nothing.

"Are you really…" Sophie stepped up, holding back a reaction that was dying to come out.

"Knocked up? With child? Growing a human?" Maya suggested. She turned to look at Lucas. He looked back at her, tipping his head; this was hers to tell. She slipped her hand in his. "Yes," she breathed out. "We are."

The next few minutes consisted of many arms around them, many voices speaking over one another. Riley had been the one to get to Maya, the two old friends remaining locked in that embrace for a good long while. Maya could just feel the excitement coursing through her best friend. Right then, she could just imagine it all… Auntie Riley would be a whirlwind around that kid, and she couldn't wait to see it.

Eventually, they'd let go, at Lucas' suggestion that it might not have been ideal to jostle her too much after how their day had started. Suddenly, they were on task, getting her something to eat and drink she would hopefully keep down.

"You can't tell anyone, okay?" Maya looked to each of the four of them, harnessing her very best piercing look. "Not yet." Sophie, Chiara, Dylan, and Riley all promised. "I haven't even known for sure half a day yet, it hasn't even really sunk in yet, so we just need… time."

"You'll have it," Riley nodded, and on this Maya believed her. "I probably shouldn't talk to your parents… Or my parents…" she mumbled to herself.

"Riley," Maya tapped the table in front of her and the brunette looked up. "Breathe." Riley breathed. "You'll be fine."

Before long, the excitement of that morning had to be set aside. They all had classes and jobs to get ready for. Maya and Lucas made their way back up to their room, where Maya promptly sat on the bed and laid down, staring up at the ceiling as she breathed out.

"My brain feels too big for my head right now," she declared. Lucas came up to the bed and, when she could see him up there, looking at her, she turned her head toward him. "If I play hooky, will it impress badly on the sprout?" she asked, pointing to her stomach with both index fingers. "I have a medical reason," she insisted.

"I will back you up to my last breath," he vowed crouching down. "If you stay, I stay."

"Mmm…" she considered this. "If we stay here, we might actually make ourselves crazier. Next thing we know, there'll be half a nursery planned, and name lists, and I'll have started learning how to knit," she stared him down.

"Knitting?" he smirked.

"You know I like a new art medium. This one gets to keep the kid warm, so why not?"

"And it gives your hands something to do," he nodded.

"Yes, exactly," she reached up to tap his arm. "Well said."

"I'm confused, _are_ we going to class today?" Lucas asked. Maya sighed, staring up at the ceiling.

"I guess…" she replied in such a way that the words 'if we have to' hung in the air unspoken.

"And tonight?" he asked as she sat up. She stared back at him and, after a beat, she blinked and smiled. "Forgot what day it was?" he guessed.

"I was a bit preoccupied with… you know," Maya reminded him. "But what about tonight? You're not changing anything, We've been together five years as of today, actually, probably exactly five years, give or take a few minutes. Plus, by next year's anniversary we'll have an actual live baby to deal with, which might complicate elaborate dinner plans. We need tonight to go on as planned."

"When you put it like that," he nodded. "Alright then, I'm coming to pick you up from your last class, we come back here, get changed, and then we're on."

"I am going to put on _the_ best dress," she declared, chin up. "While I still can," she sighed.

"The green one?" he couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"That one, yeah," she smirked at the look on his face.

So, much as they felt like staying home, they got ready and drove off to school along with the others. When they arrived, Riley turned to Maya with a look like she didn't want to leave her behind. It took Sophie and Chiara to convince her and lead her away.

"You, too, Huckleberry," Maya turned to Lucas.

"What?" he looked at her.

"You're tailing me," she whispered, then laughed. "Go to class." He sighed, turning to face her, grasping her face in his hands, kissing her. "I love you…"

"I love you… both," he smiled, which made her smile back and mouth the words 'green dress.' He pressed a hand to his heart like he'd lose his balance.

Once she was on her own, walking to class, Maya felt that flutter in her heart, left to her own thoughts and the knowledge that she was having a baby. She'd lost count of how many times she'd felt the urge to press her hand to that one spot she could swear had started to shift, the one tangible proof she had for the time being, beyond the tests and the sickness. She couldn't do that, not here, not if she wanted to keep her secret for a little while.

When she got a text from Willow, she remembered that _she_ knew, too, part of the way. She wanted to know how it had all turned out. After a moment's thought, she pressed her hand to her pocket, thinking of the key to Professor Robinson's office.

She'd held her breath just a moment as she turned the knob, before seeing that the professor wasn't there. She went in, shut the door and turned the lock. She pulled out her phone and dialled up Willow.

"Maya?" she answered. "Hey, I…"

"So, is it too early to start planning play dates with the kids?" Maya asked. Willow squealed and laughed. "No telling yet, okay?"

"Not a peep," Willow swore.

"Everyone at the house knows on account of my waking them up to the tune of… you know…" Thankfully she didn't have to say the word, which she still didn't trust wouldn't send her going again. Willow understood well enough.

"And you're doing okay?" Willow asked. "Last night, when we were talking…"

"Last night, I was teetering on a line, not sure what side I'd fall on. But now I know I'm on the side of… diapers, and onesies, and tiny socks… and I'm completely okay with it."

"That's good to hear."

"I know I'm just in that bubble right now, like 'yay, baby!' Eventually it's going to be 'oh… baby… what do I do now?' and…"

She'd been pacing back and forth along the space in her corner of the room where she had her desk, focused on the call, so when she turned around and found Professor Robinson standing just inside the room, she startled, the phone nearly slipping out of her hand before she managed to hold on to it again.

"Hey, I should let you go, I need to get to class," she told Willow.

"What happened?" Willow asked.

"Tell you later. Bye," she hung up, slipping her phone back in her pocket. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she sighed. "How much did you…" she slowly asked.

"Some of it," the professor told her, then, smiling, "Congratulations, Maya, dear."

"Thanks," she grinned as the professor walked forward and motioned as though she was about to hug her but wanted to make sure it was okay. Maya nodded, folding into that hug and feeling like this was one solid grandma hold. "You know, this whole plan of not telling too many people is not working out so great so far," she frowned into the woman's shoulder. In a matter of two hours, they'd gone from two people to eight people knowing.

"Don't worry yourself, I'm like a steel trap."

Not so far away, while Maya had gone looking for a quiet place to talk to Willow, Lucas had found his way to his first class. All he could think about as he went – apart from that green dress – was the fact that they needed to get informed, needed to get ready. Sure, the baby wouldn't be born for many months, but until then there was the whole pregnancy, everything that needed to happen _before_ they had the baby, and he very much wanted to get the ball rolling on that. This was his family, and he had to take care of them. They needed books, and if it would be too complicated to get them from the store where he worked then he'd just have to get them elsewhere. Did the university library have anything like that?

"Woah, hey," someone grabbed him at the shoulders and stopped him walking forward. This turned out to be a good thing, as he blinked and realized he had been all of three steps away from walking headlong into a pillar. When he turned around, he found Bishop standing there. "Better watch where you're going, Friar, that anniversary of yours won't be nearly as fun if you show up with a busted nose."

"Yeah, thanks, sorry, I was just thinking about… stuff," he blinked.

"Must be really important stuff then," Bishop chuckled as they walked on toward class.

"It is," Lucas spoke quietly to himself.

"Party was great last night, by the way. I know you didn't get to spend as much time there as the rest of us, what with your cousin popping in, and then you and Maya just disappeared on us."

"Yeah, she wasn't feeling well," Lucas lied, sort of. "But she's better now," he went on.

"Well, that's good to hear," Bishop smiled.

It would have been so easy to tell him, and oh how he wanted to get to tell someone, anyone. He wanted to share this joy that was building up in him, so much he could barely hold it all in. But he'd promised not to say a word to anyone, so that was what he'd do… or not do… He wouldn't tell anyone. Now he just had to get through the day without having an outburst and spilling the beans… the sprout… He smiled to himself, the nickname adopted so naturally between Maya and him already. It almost made the baby feel even more real. It was their little sprout.

"What's with the smile there?" Bishop asked, and Lucas realized that, once again, he'd gotten lost in thought, so much so that he hadn't seen they'd arrived to their classroom.

"Nothing, just… just excited for tonight, and the notes…" he told Bishop, which was in this case not a lie at all, even if it came hand in hand with a bit of an omission. He _had_ written notes, five of them, distributed to people who would be in each of Maya's classes that day. Five notes for five years.

"Alright, fair enough. Hey, so, you want to come and study at my place over lunch?" Bishop offered. Lucas was about to say no, but then, remembering that 'Bishop's place' was also 'Willow and Lion's place,' it got him wondering if maybe that'd be his way to get his hands on some books for Maya and him to at least start looking at in the days and weeks to come, until they got around to getting their own. If he could just do all this without Bishop seeing…

"Yeah, sure, okay."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	3. Years to Remember

_A/N: So, as the structure is much looser here (which is to say I don't need to have so much of a basic plan before going in and I don't have everything slated too far ahead of time), if there are any particular little moments you'd like to see happen within the story here, just let me know!_

* * *

_Chapter 3_  
_Years to Remember_

Hours later, Lucas was right where he'd told Maya he would be, waiting for her outside her last class of the day. She walked out of the room, chatting away with Franny and Kayla, and as they waved her off – with a wave over to him when they saw him – he spotted the rolled paper in Maya's hand, one of his notes. As she started over to him, he could see the multicolored ribbons dangling from the roll, which held all five papers together.

"You really should have written something like 'Hey, Prego, don't read this in front of people, I'm about to go all romantic on you' on the outside, yeah?" she asked, smiling. There was a tremor of emotion still in her voice, and he nodded apologetically before she stretched up to kiss him.

"So… you cried?" he guessed.

"Five times," she held up a hand, fingers splayed out for emphasis. "_Five._ They probably think I'm unhinged or…"

"Pregnant?" he suggested.

"Now where would they get a thought like that?" she wondered, and he mirrored her expression. "This was really… It was worth making a weepy fool of myself," she smiled. "Thank you," she pressed the roll close to herself with a tip of the head.

"Every word," he smiled back, tapping a finger to that roll.

They drove back home, just the two of them, the better to get themselves ready for their Date. He disappeared off to the basement to shower and get dressed, leaving her their room and enabling a moment for them to meet up again, in all their anniversary glory.

Maya did not feel particularly glorious as she stood in front of her mirror and looked at herself before she got started. She'd been going around all day, doing her best to just sit through her classes, be the student she needed to be, and not just think about what was going on in her body. That was easier said than done when the memory of her first face-off with morning sickness was still so alive in her. What if it happened again? Fine, she knew it would, for a while, but that didn't make the prospect of a repeater on the first day any better… _this_ day of all days. This was to be the swan song of their normal days for a good long while…

"Alright, green dress…" she pulled it from the closet. "You work your magic, make him pull that face like he just got smacked upside the head. Do that, and you became a… sartorial legend."

She put on the dress, picked out the right shoes to match, then went about doing her hair. It wasn't long, but it wasn't as short as it had been when she'd had it cut. She pulled the sides together, pinned them at the back. She stood at the mirror again, inspecting the results so far. It didn't seem complete, it needed… color…

She looked to her dresser, the tight roll of pages together, the five ribbons poking out the middle, red, yellow, green, blue, purple… Quickly, she bound them together, fixed them to the back of her head until they dangled with the sides she'd pinned back. She could just see them as she turned her head this way and that. It was just what she'd needed, like she carried those years with her with every flick of her hair. Everything after that fell into place, and then she was all ready to go.

Downstairs, after he'd stepped out of the shower, Lucas started through pulling himself together, which didn't really take all that much. Soon, he was all dressed up and ready to go. He finished up fixing his hair and as he stood there, looking at his reflection, his hand settled in his pocket, around his pocket watch, the one she'd bought him, knowing how much he'd always loved holding his grandfather's pocket watch. Over the years, the only times he hadn't carried it with him, clipped to his belt, had been when Maya had the watch in her possession. He would let her borrow it whenever the situation demanded it, when she needed support and he couldn't be with her to provide it.

He looked at himself, and what did he see? He saw… He saw a twenty-one-year-old kid, working hard for a future that came a lot faster than any of them expected. Was he afraid? A little, sure… okay, more than a little… But he looked at himself and that portion of fear felt natural… expected, normal. He'd be more concerned if he _wasn't_ afraid about becoming someone's father, becoming responsible for a human life like that. He didn't think he'd ever stop being afraid another day in his life.

He'd gone up to the living room, turning on the television as he waited, clicking through the channels to keep his mind from scattering. When his phone gave a buzz, he picked it up to find a message from Maya. _Ready. Are you?_ Three words, and a string of what had to be every single green emoji available to her.

"I'm sitting down!" he called up the stairs. "Smelling salts at the ready!"

"I stood up there for like three minutes convincing myself I could still wear heels. I don't want to start overthinking everything all of a sudden, like 'hey, what if you trip on those heels that make you just tall enough and break the kid,' it's only been a day, just tell me I'm being ridiculous, okay?"

He had no words. He'd watched her come down the stairs and everything, listened to her as she spoke… mostly listened… and now that she'd reached the bottom, he sort of knew she'd asked him something, or told him something, but his brain just spun in circles like a frozen screen. She tended to have that effect on him, but today he didn't know if it was the dress, or the milestone, or the baby, but suddenly his joke about the smelling salts didn't feel too far from the truth.

"Do… you need me to give you a minute?" she asked, turning slowly on the spot, he suspected, not so much to give him a good long look at her, much more to ensure she wouldn't get dizzy and get sick all over again.

"I'm going to need more than that," he replied. She smiled.

"Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."

"Oh, yes, you are," he finally got up from the couch and moved to her. He took one of her hands in his, pulled her close with the other. "I've said it so many times, but every time it's been true, and tonight… You're so beautiful…"

"We haven't even made it out the door and you've got me going in for cry number six," she breathed. "We're not making a habit of this, yeah?"

"Can't make any promises."

The somewhere Maya was going, and Lucas, too, of course, was the Nook. It would have been Ma Maggie's in a heartbeat if it hadn't been so far away, but this was by no means a consolation location. They were very much overdressed for the place serving breakfast all day long, though neither of them seemed to care. And with the additional table setting Lucas had brought in a few days before, well… in their own corner of the Nook, they really fit in just fine.

"The usual for you guys?" asked Tasha, who waited on them more often than not. By the smile on her face, Maya guessed she'd been the one Lucas had recruited into setting their table up today.

"Uh…" she hesitated, looking to the menu in front of her. "Special occasion, I think I'll take a look through this time," Maya told her, and the woman smiled.

"Same here," Lucas nodded.

"Great, let me know when you're ready to order," Tasha told them, turning to Maya as she walked off and giving her a wink.

"Okay, that's only sort of the truth," Maya told Lucas once they were alone again. "I just… I want tonight to be good, and what if I eat something that doesn't… agree with me," she gestured with a frown.

"Kind of what I figured," he nodded. She sighed, bowing her head. "Hey, it's fine," he tried to sound encouraging. "It's like… your first day at a new job, and you don't know how everything works yet…"

"Except the… equipment… is my own body, and here I thought I'd done a pretty good job of operating it for twenty years, and now…" she trailed off, trying to find a good analogy.

"You got an upgrade?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that," she pointed back at him. "Right," she opened her menu. "It'll be fine, I can find something. Now, you, don't think you have to take any less than what you want for my sake, okay?"

"Understood," he promised.

After several minutes had gone by, he had decided almost at once and she had just scanned through one page and the next, all through the menu, then back again once she'd gotten to the end… again, and again, and again… She must have been wearing her conflict all over her face, as Tasha came back toward them unsummoned.

"What's the matter, hon, not hungry?"

"Starving, I just… Let's say I don't trust my stomach right now, and it's making it hard for me to make a decision." If she didn't know that he'd tell her he would wait, she would have told Lucas to go ahead and order. This was their anniversary, their milestone. They were going to eat at the same time.

"Tell you what," Tasha reached over and closed the menu for her. "I've got you covered, alright? Trust me."

"I… okay… thanks," Maya smiled at her. Lucas told the waitress what he wanted, and she went off back to the kitchen. "She taught me some tricks one day when I was here on my own, you know, waitress to waitress," she grinned.

"Yeah?" Lucas chuckled.

"She's been working here twenty-seven years, since they opened," Maya nodded, then, after a pause, "She knows."

"What?" he asked.

"About the baby," she whispered. "I didn't say anything, she just knows, I'm telling you."

Whether or not that was the case, when Tasha returned with their plates, Maya willed herself to put her concerns at the back of her mind and eat and talk with her boyfriend. She told him all about how Professor Robinson had walked in on her call with Willow and ended up finding out about her being pregnant that way.

"Anyway, she told me to come and see her whenever if I needed to talk… And that's the last of the baby talk for tonight," she sat up, smiling back at him. "Tonight is about you and me, here now, and five years together. There will be… plenty of time for us to talk about the future in the weeks to come."

"Okay, well, before we move on to something else, I should probably tell you… Bishop knows," Lucas slowly admitted. Maya blinked.

"You told him?" she asked, surprised.

"No, well, I…" he sighed. "We went to his apartment over lunch to study, and I figured maybe I could borrow some of Willow's pregnancy books while I was there. I wrote her to make sure it'd be okay and everything, she said to go ahead, so I did. And then…"

"And then Bishop caught you," she guessed, smiling.

"Yeah," he confirmed. "Should have seen him, hugged me so hard I think he almost cracked a couple ribs."

"Oh, no," she laughed.

"Yeah, but, anyway, after that neither of us was really up to studying, so we went and…" He paused now, thinking of something. "Be right back," he told her before slipping out of their booth.

"Wh… Lucas, where are you going?" she asked, but he just held up a finger and headed out of the restaurant. She watched him through the window. He went back to his car, opened the trunk and pulled out a bag before jogging back to the restaurant and to their booth.

"I'm probably taking away any chance we have of not ending up talking baby stuff until after we leave here, but…"

"Who are we kidding?" she guessed.

"Yeah, that," he pointed at her, as she'd done with him before.

"So, what's in the bag?" she asked with an intrigued smile.

"What do you think?" he presented it to her. The bag came from a bookstore, she saw, and not from Coleman's. "Don't tell anyone I went to the competition," he joked.

"To the grave," she swore before reaching the bag and pulling out a small stack of books. The one on top she recognized easily enough, as both her mother and Willow had it. There were a couple other pregnancy books, one of them geared toward the fathers, and there was a pregnancy journal, too.

"I saw it, thought it might come in handy," he explained.

"Thanks," she smirked. "That's good, I…" She started to laugh when she saw the last book, which had nothing to do with the baby at all, not directly at least. It was a beginner's guide to knitting. "Yes!" she whispered.

"Also picked up needles and yarn and other stuff. After the bookstore, we found a store for all that, the bag's still in the car. You'll have all you need to get started on that new medium of yours."

"Oh, I'm going to be all over this," she leafed through the knitting book for half a minute. She closed it after that, nodding to herself before slipping the books back in the bag and setting the bundle at her side. "Later," she told him.

"Maya, it's okay," he insisted. "It's the biggest thing to ever happen to us, it's normal for us to keep wanting to talk about it. Anything beyond that, I mean… If it's important then we'll get to it sooner or later, so for now, let's just talk about whatever we want to talk. School, work, home, or the sprout."

"Sounds fair," she nodded.

"How did your day go?" he asked. "After Willow, and Professor Robinson, all that?"

"It was good," she replied. "A bit shaky, trying to stay focused and not rolling through all the little thoughts and questions that keep popping into my head today…"

"Like what?" he asked.

"Like… I have a little brother who'll be just a year and a half older than his niece or nephew. That'll be so weird… And they could have more kids, my parents, I mean they might…"

"Oh… yeah…" he replied. He hadn't even thought about it like that.

"And then imagine, a few months from now, doing shows with the band when both Willow and I will be out there with our bellies… Two out of five members who are going to be out of 'performance shape' for a while… And who knows what will happen after the babies?"

"No way of knowing," Lucas pointed out, the best he could say.

"And with school, I think I should be okay to do this next semester, and then, far as I was able to count, I should be due somewhere in June…"

"June," he repeated, smiling.

"Your mom is so going to call that kid Junebug, isn't she?" Maya asked, smiling back.

"There's… a fair chance, yeah," he nodded.

"And what happens in the fall?" she pressed on, before chasing the concern from her face as she saw Tasha coming back their way.

"How are we doing here?" the waitress asked. "How's the stomach doing?" she turned to Maya as she picked up their empty plates.

"Well, go the hunger taken care of, so far so good. Thanks, Tasha, really."

"Don't mention it," the woman smiled at her and patted her hand before moving along.

After they'd left the restaurant, they walked back to the car as he carried the bag of books in one hand and had the other draped around her shoulders.

"I was going to take you to the movies, but I think we'll both be better off making our own theater back home. No shoes, no socks, get comfortable…" he told her, and she smiled.

"Yes, please." He looked at her for a moment.

"You're going to start checking out those books, aren't you?"

"What color yarn did you get?" she countered, making him smile. He reached to the back of her head, the colorful ribbons twined in her hair.

"Few different ones," was all he'd say.

"Oh, fine, a mystery…"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	4. Surrounded With Hands

_Chapter 4_  
_Surrounded With Hands_

If the first day had been about breaking past the initial shock and accepting the reality that they were going to be parents, the first week had become just… navigation. The next several months wouldn't be about their ending up someone's parents, it would all be about just getting to that part. It would be about taking care of their Junebug… Junesprout… taking care of him or her and taking care of Maya as she carried their baby into life…

The first thing to do was as straightforward as they came. They read up, both of them. Whenever they had time, they'd be at their books. They didn't carry them around with them and that was mostly for the fact that they were trying to keep it to themselves… them and the other seven people who'd been told or had found out on that first day. Maya had found a solution for that though. They got the audio version. They'd be sitting somewhere, walking around, and to all the world they could have been listening to music or an actual novel, instead of finding out about what she couldn't eat or what potential problems to look out for…

Faster than they would have expected it, they did get to feel like they'd hit the ground and gone from stumbling around in confusion to developing something close enough as to be called a rhythm. They weren't running yet, but they were moving forward and that was good enough.

Lucas couldn't help but be amazed by her. Already there were difficulties, the biggest of them being the morning sickness, and even there she'd just manage to go and crack a joke. As they'd come to expect it, the race to the bathroom had become a daily thing. Much as they'd read that it wouldn't necessarily be _morning _sickness, that's what it had been, almost like clockwork. She'd be awake five minutes at the most and then boom, off to the races. By now, she had half a mind to just get up and start walking as soon as she was awake.

"Gotta hand it to the sprout, the kid's prompt," she'd made a face as she looked up from where she sat, on the edge of the bathtub, to find him standing in the door, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He came and sat next to her, and she set her head to his shoulder. "Every morning, I wake up, and for a little while it's all nice, and peaceful. You're right there next to me, Mr. Big Spoon, and your arm's around me, like it usually is, except now… Now, when I wake up, and your arm's around me… I can just feel your hand, just here," she laid her own hand over that spot, smiling to herself. "Like even in your sleep you're thinking about… us."

"Asleep, awake, round the clock," he nodded.

"You're going to be a little intense as a dad, aren't you?" she smirked up at him.

"Hello, have you met my mother?" he looked back at her. She let out a laugh at that, only to pause, hand to her stomach. "You okay? You need to again?" She held up her other hand. _Hang on._

"I'm good, fine, it passed." They stayed like that for a few seconds more, waiting out to see if it would stay that way. "Can you make me a toast?" she asked.

"Coming right up," he stood, moving to kiss her on reflex. She stopped him, whimpering, so he redirected to her forehead. "Nice save." She grumbled.

It was Saturday, so at the very least they didn't have class to worry about. He was due at the bookstore early though, full day, while Maya was due for work just after lunch and until closing. When she came down to the kitchen for her toast and he let her know he'd be there to pick her up, as he always was, she just groaned and laid her head on the table.

"That bad?"

"No, not now," she reassured him as she lifted her head again. "I cashed in three nights off this week, but I have to go in today, first time since Halloween, and I don't know, being around food all day, last thing I need is…"

"You know," he finished for her, in what she fully suspected was meant to be an imitation of her. She stared at him as she took a bite of her toast rather than reply.

"I'm just saying, there are a couple of things… I won't say their names, in case that's all it takes to get me going… They used to be fine, and I loved eating them and everything, but now the smell alone is enough to…"

"And are they on the menu at the restaurant?" he asked. She thought about it for a moment, like she was rolling through the memorized dishes one by one.

"I… Actually, I don't think… Well…" she paused again, ticking off components in her head. "Okay, no," she finally sighed.

"Alright, so you'll be fine." He stopped himself from going on with 'unless you find something else that gets you nauseated.'

"I know… In theory, I know. Except for how I feel like a ticking sickbomb, and that's just a really hard image to shake." He looked at her for a moment, thinking. "What?" she asked.

"Maybe you need to just tell Isabel about the baby. Instead of going around all day being off because you're trying to hide what's up."

"Way ahead of you on that. I just have to keep it contained. Just Isabel."

He'd had to leave her to her toast in order to get ready for his day at the store. By the time he came back downstairs, she was sitting in the living room with Chiara, showing her the bit of knitting she'd been working on over the past few days. To look at her now, proud of what she had to show, he could have informed their roommate of how many times he'd overheard her cursing under her breath the first few days. She was improving now, and that was all that counted.

Arriving at Coleman's Books, which wouldn't open for another twenty minutes, he found things as he often did at this point. Tracy was off in her office, Pete was in the back of the store, and Rosa was checking over the various displays, straightening up and redistributing where needed.

"Morning," Rosa greeted him after he'd shut the door again and locked it back up.

"Hey," he nodded over to her.

"Come here," she waved him over. "What do you think?" she pointed to the table in front of her. "If you ask me, it's way too early to start putting up the Christmas stuff, but after having the same argument with my mom all these years, I know when there's no point."

"Well, it's… it's festive. Maybe it helps with sales?" he shrugged.

"Oh, it does, I know. Hey…" He blinked, finding she was waving her hand in his face.

"Sorry," he shook his head. "Just got distracted for a second," he told her before moving back to the counter. He _had_ been distracted, catching a glimpse of the pregnancy section off across the store from over Rosa's shoulder. He had been keeping away from there all week, the couple nights he'd been working, not wanting to look like he was taking his time, browsing, even though he still wanted to. Sure, he didn't need to go and look at those books, he had his own, back home, and the audio on his phone, too. But the books were there, just there, and it always got to feel like he was supposed to at least go and see what they had.

Then again, there was the computer, too. When he thought about it, he shook his head to himself, wondering why he hadn't thought about that. If nothing else, it would help satisfy his curiosity.

It wasn't so bad that no one here knew what was happening, not when he could at least talk to his roommates back home, and Bishop at school. He couldn't see how they could have kept that secret very long at the house anyway. Even with their knowing, there was some kind of a disconnect, had to be. They'd ask Maya and him how things were going, and they'd say fine, because things _were_ fine, morning sickness aside. On the whole, that was really all she'd had to deal with so far. She'd been trying to go to bed earlier, to get more sleep, and she'd had to make some adjustments to what she ate, but she could deal with that easily enough.

Sooner or later, they were going to have to stop and figure some things out. The questions were all there, like the pile of stuff that got left sitting around in the corner of your room for ages because you wouldn't get around to dealing with it. But that didn't mean you didn't see it, every day, sitting there, waiting. Those questions were like that. They knew they'd have to deal with them sooner or later, some sooner than others.

They'd decided to wait until Christmas to tell their parents, or at least until they went back to Austin for the holidays. She'd be more than three months along by then, which seemed like a reasonable period to wait… Alright, so it seemed sort of pointless now, what with how many of their friends already knew. It would have been a completely different sort of thing if they were entirely… openly pregnant out here, and meanwhile no one back in Austin knew. None of their other friends over in New York and Boston knew either… Beyond their roommates, it was only three of them who knew, that was nothing. Christmas, that would be the time.

"Excuse me, young man, got any books on baseball?" a gruff voice asked, and he startled, looking up from the computer, only to find the laughing faces of Franny Santos and Kayla Banks, Maya's friends… his friends, too, really, he had to say. Kayla got to signing, and though he hadn't picked up nearly as much of the ASL Maya and the others in the band had done in the little over a year since she'd come into their lives, he still got enough to get the gist of what she was saying. _Geez, why so jumpy?_

"I-I was just looking for something, I… Do you need something?"

"I told you, baseball," Franny nodded. "It's a birthday present for my mom."

"Oh… yeah, okay," he nodded, remembering vaguely her telling them how her mother had loved the sport all her life, played as a kid, and a teenager. It was a sore spot of hers that she could never have gone on to the major leagues. "I mean, if she's as much into it as you say, we might not have anything she hasn't read, but… Wait, we just got this biography the other day…" he guided them to the section and passed the book on to Franny.

"Hey, yeah, she'll love this," Franny pronounced after looking it over. "Thanks, Lucas."

"Sure… Kind of my job," he nodded. "Do you need anything else?"

They had only come for the one book, so they'd started back toward the registers. As they got closer, Lucas noticed Rosa standing there with a sort of baffled look on her face. He was only mildly aware of the bells ringing over the door as he guided his friends to the counter. It was Kayla who stopped and tapped at Rosa's arm to get her attention before starting to sign what Lucas interpreted as 'is something wrong.'

"Nothing, just a misunderstanding," Rosa signed and spoke at the same time before moving to the counter. "Hey, where's your customer?" she asked Lucas. He looked up from the baseball book he'd been ringing up.

"You're looking at her," he indicated Franny, who raised her hand in a wave.

"No, the other one, whoever you were helping before. Is it that one over there with the toddler then?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" he asked back, still not following her.

"I just had a very unpleasant encounter with a woman I'm pretty sure will never come shopping here again since I thought she was the one you were helping, and apparently women don't take too kindly to someone calling them pregnant when they're not."

As confused as he'd been up to that point, everything slammed into place so fast that he might have been knocked off his feet. That made one of them, as Franny quickly interpreted to Kayla before turning back to Rosa.

"Why would you tell her that?"

"I didn't!" Rosa insisted, "But he was looking something up in the system before you came, and I figured I'd help with whoever got left behind… which I realize now he wouldn't have done," she sighed, stealing a look to Lucas, who tried not to hold her gaze. "So? Where is she? The one who was asking about the baby books?"

"Uh… phone," he lied, which worked for all of a second, as Rosa leaned over the counter to look at the phone. There was no call on hold.

"Try again," Rosa stared at him. "Why were you looking at…" She stopped, froze, even as Franny did. The only one who had no reaction was Kayla, who hadn't been in any position to catch what was being said between the three of them, mostly from having picked up a book on display on the counter. When she looked up though, finding the odd looks on all their faces, she tapped Franny's arm, asking with a frown what was going on. It broke the initial shock, as her friend turned to her and started to sign something much too quickly for him to ever understand. Even so, when Kayla gasped… He sighed, rubbing his hand at his face. _Damn it…_

"Lucas?" Franny asked. They were all staring at him, the three of them lined up like vultures on a line. There was no getting away from them. That cornered helplessness was all the answer they needed.

"Hey, hey," he quickly whispered. "Don't make a scene… please," he looked around. "You weren't supposed to know yet." Kayla signed something, a smile tipping closer to a smirk as she did. Whatever it was, it made both Franny and Rosa giggle. Lucas looked to them for assistance.

"She swore she… wouldn't say a word," Franny told him.

X

Maya sat outside the restaurant for a few minutes after she arrived for her shift. She took deep breaths of the cool autumn air, tried to imprint it in her mind to hold on to until the moment when she'd be standing out here again in wait of Lucas.

"Okay, Sprout, I'll make you a deal," she mumbled between breaths. "You stay cool today, and someday we're taking you to Disneyland."

When she finally walked in, she had one thing alone on her mind, and that was talking to Isabel. That was why she'd come in this early, to ensure that her friends and co-workers wouldn't all be standing around when she passed through. After having been away for a week on 'sick' leave, they'd be all over her wanting to know if she was okay, observing her face from way too close. What if they could tell?

"Chef Isabel?" she called as she stepped into the kitchen. The rest of the kitchen staff looked up, waving and saying hello.

"Office," Fidelio pointed in answer to her question. "Welcome back!" he called after her once she'd started in the direction of the office.

"Thank you!" she called back. At the door, she stopped, finding Isabel there, going through some papers at her desk. "Hey…" Maya breathed. Isabel looked up.

"Maya!" she smiled, moving around the desk. "Good to have you back, are you feeling better?"

"No," Maya replied at once.

"Oh, then are you sure you don't need another day to…"

"I'm pregnant," she cut in, and the chef blinked. "So, one more day isn't exactly going to cut it." She paused. "Surprise…"

"Right," Isabel slowly nodded, giving a look Maya took to mean 'are we happy about this?' When Maya nodded, her boss smiled. "Well, now, this explains a couple of things," she told Maya as she hugged her. "Taking that this sickness was of the morning kind?"

"Oh, yeah," Maya breathed out. "Things were a bit… shaky, the first couple days. But I'm good now, so… here I am," she nodded sharply. The chef looked at her for a few seconds.

"You sure about that?" she asked, staring her down like she already knew the answer.

"I mean… I _am_ okay… I'm okay _now_. Sort of concerned about what'll happen if suddenly I'm not… out there," Maya pointed off toward the dining room.

"Right, I get that," Isabel promised with a nod. "If you need to take a breather once in a while, we can work it out, now…" she paused, before asking if anyone else out there knew.

"At the restaurant, just you," Maya shook her head. "Trying to keep it that way," she admitted.

"We're going to need a code word you and I."

With her fixer in her back pocket, in the form of Isabel's awareness and her code word, Maya had started her shift in the dining room. Her word was 'ergo.' Isabel had come up with it and found it particularly appropriate. No chance of it being misinterpreted, and it did sort of say what she'd be doing without actually saying… _air go…_

Once she'd actually gotten started, it became easier not to worry too much. She found her old rhythm again and it felt good to be in it. She only had one close call, midway through her shift, and with one quick ergo, she was out the back door and into the alley. This only proved to be a bad move however, as proximity to the dumpster only took her one notch closer and forced her to go right back in. She stood there next to the door, breathing slowly, waiting… waiting…

"Hey, you alright?" She was only vaguely aware of the question at first, until she turned her eyes and found Lion standing there.

"Fine, just need a minute," Maya told him, trying to sound as natural as possible. "Hey, can you check on table five's order? They've been waiting a while and…"

"Okay, look, I swear Willow never said a word, but is there any chance I've got this situation right?" She looked at him, held his gaze for a moment. She wouldn't even know how to deny it.

"How'd you know?"

"I live with a pregnant woman and I've seen this part of the show," he gestured to her overall stance and look. "How long?"

"Seven weeks," she told him. "Found out the night of the party at our house."

"So that's why you guys disappeared," he nodded.

"There you are," a voice broke in and Maya bowed her head.

"Oh, come on," she mumbled to herself before looking up again as Leona walked toward them.

"Table five's getting kind of vocal," the soft spoken waitress informed her.

"I'll take care of it," Lion volunteered at once and headed toward the kitchen. Leona watched him go before turning back to Maya.

"Hey, are you alright? You don't look so…"

"Colorful?" Maya offered.

"You look like you're going to be sick."

"Trying not to be," Maya told her. It had just about passed by now, but she still needed a minute or so to really shake this off and get back to work.

"Maybe you should go home, if you need another day…" Maybe it was that Chef Isabel had said the same thing earlier, or that it would get to a certain point where she didn't want to have to lie about her sprout, or that the universe seemed bent on contradicting her plans, but at that point she didn't have it in her to say anything except…

"Another day isn't going to root out this ill-named morning sickness I've got going on," she told Leona, looking her in the eye so there was no room for misinterpretation.

"Oh! Oh… Maya, you're…"

"Yup."

"So that's why you weren't…"

"Exactly."

"Do you need anything? Ginger ale? Crackers?"

"I'm fine, Leona, really," Maya gave her a smile. "I don't think we'd actually _have_ crackers in here," she pointed out. "Maybe I should carry some with me," she told herself.

"I won't tell anyone, I swear," Leona promised as she came to lean against the wall next to her. Maya gave a sort of pitiful laugh at that. "What?"

"This circle of trust started out just Lucas and me, and it's like day by day it's only gotten bigger, and it's hard to think of it as a secret anymore. We haven't told our families and by now it's getting to feel like they'll be the last to know at this rate."

"Wait, does that mean…"

"Oh, yeah, Bishop knows," Maya revealed. "Sworn to secrecy, that's why he didn't tell you or else he would have."

"No, I get that," Leona assured her. "It explains a lot though."

She'd been able to finish out her shift without any further incidents, and save for the fact that she was exhausted she was really happy. This night, this sort of victory, it all left her feeling like she'd figured out something important. She'd probably have plenty more moments like these in the months to come… the months and the years… but if she just gave a bit of push back against the things that made her feel like this, she could find again that they could be made to dissipate until she didn't feel them anymore.

"I have never been so happy to see your face," she breathed as she walked toward Lucas, standing by his car, and melted into his arms.

"Same," Lucas told her, and she looked up to him, smiling as she stretched up to kiss him. When she pulled back a bit, she only had to look at him for two seconds before she sighed.

"Who'd you tell?"

"I didn't _tell_ them, I…"

"_Them_? How many did you…"

"Franny, Kayla, Rosa," he nodded at each name. He explained about the computer, the baseball book, the misunderstanding, the actual understanding…

"So now that makes…" she started, then had to pause to count, "Thirteen people who know beside us… sixteen if you count the receptionist, nurse, and doctor from last Thursday's appointment…" Now he was the one who did some counting, and when _his_ count stopped at fourteen – not counting the medical staff – he didn't have to think far to figure out who else could be added to make it sixteen.

"Alright, so… What do you want to do?" he asked. "You want to just go ahead and tell them now or…" _Them_… Their families… That was one of the things she needed to get to dissipate, but…

"No, we said we'd do it over the holidays, that's what we'll do," she nodded.

"Okay," he agreed. "If you change your mind…"

"You'll be the first to know." They got in his car, started driving toward home. "If _you_ really feel you can't wait anymore, you have to tell me, too, okay?" she told him. He smiled.

"I swear," he told her. A few minutes went by before she asked what she'd needed to ask.

"They'll be happy about it, won't they?"

"I… I hope so," Lucas told her. That was sort of the thing that kept them from deciding for sure whether or not they wanted to make their big revelation _at_ Christmas or just after they'd arrive in Austin. What if they wrecked Christmas? It seemed easy to tell themselves their parents would be over the moon, but what if they weren't? "It's still over a month away, Maya. There's time."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	5. Thump, Thump

_Chapter 5_  
_Thump, Thump_

Two weeks and some dust had gone by now. It was mid-November, and on this one afternoon the members of TXNY were to gather for their first practice together since before Halloween. It hadn't even all been strung together under the same excuse which had kept Maya from working at the restaurant on the first week. Some of it was, yes, but then there had been other things, mostly school things, and those had always taken precedent to these practices.

But now, today, they were back on. Maya had been laid out on the couch in the basement's music room, headphones in her ears, phone clamped in her hands, eyes closed. That was how her bandmates came upon her, led down by Riley, who had let them in.

"Maya?" Riley went up to her, lightly tapping her shoulder. She opened her eyes, which immediately dislodged a few tears previously stuck and now free to roll down her cheeks. "Oh, no, what's wrong, are you okay?" Riley asked at once, which soon had the others rushing forward, too, even as Maya pulled the earbud from one of her ears.

"What?" she asked, sniffling and brushing tears from her eyes.

"You're crying, why?" Rosa asked, forward in the huddle of four.

"Huh? Oh…" Maya breathed, smiling through her tears. "No, it's not like that, it's… Here." She disconnected the jack from her phone, and a moment later the room was flooded with a steadily thrumming sound. As the others listened, she looked to Kayla and, not knowing the sign for it, she spelled out the word. _Heartbeat._ Her friend and bandmate smiled that bright smile of hers and provided the sign. Maya replicated it, again, and again, and again… She couldn't keep up with the rhythm of that tiny baby heart, but it didn't matter. She could hear it… They could all hear it…

They'd had the appointment that morning. She could still remember the feeling in that room as they'd waited, Lucas and her. They were going to hear their baby's heart. Today, in that room, within minutes. It would be some time still before she could feel any actual movement, something substantial, like their Junesprout telling them 'hey, I'm in here.' Sure, her body was changing, some things more than others. No one could tell any of this if they saw her with her clothes on, which was… the vast majority of people in the world, but if she lifted up her shirt, her little roundness was getting entirely more noticeable all of a sudden. Still, that was _her_ body.

That heartbeat… when they'd hear it… that'd be it, that'd be… an overture. First contact.

"I don't know about tiny heart, but _my_ fully grown one is beating really hard right now," she'd told Lucas, if she was honest, in order to get him to stop pacing the room as they waited for the doctor. He'd come toward her and taken her hand.

"It'll be fine," he nodded.

"I know," she smirked. "I'm going to keep hold of this hand now, so you don't wander off," she whispered, making him laugh.

When the doctor had finally come along and they'd gotten started, she squeezed that hand she still held, and he squeezed hers back. Later, as she laid on the basement couch, listening to the recording they'd received on her phone, she could still feel what it had felt like, in that first moment, when the sound had met their ears, the sound of their child's heart… It was like the most vibrant of inspiration rushes, the kind that led to great songs and drawings you couldn't quite believe _you_ had drawn. And Lucas… Looking over to him, seeing that look on his face, like he was feeling _everything_…

"Breathe," she'd whispered to him, and the way he took that lungful of air, he might actually have stopped breathing for a little while until she'd told him to start again. Even after they'd left the office, he'd been walking around like his feet actually bounced, and it would make her laugh, proper rolling giggles. It was the best feeling either of them had felt since the night they'd learned they were having this baby. All the stressing, the questioning, the sickness… none of it existed as they walked around with that feeling in them.

The next morning, Saturday again, started like all their mornings over the past two weeks, no surprise there. The actual surprise came as, upon waking up to find Maya gone from the bed, he'd gotten up to go find her in the bathroom. He was almost out the door when her phone started to buzz on her nightstand. He'd looked back to it on reflex, and when he'd seen the image on her screen… It was her mother.

It was not uncommon for him to pick up her phone if she was indisposed and vice versa, although this one was definitely the most peculiar instance. He wouldn't be able to go over to Maya… and he'd have to lie to her mother.

"Hey, Miss Hart… Yeah, no, she's in the shower… Yeah…" He heard more retching from the bathroom, and every impulse in him said to run over, but he had to press his hand over his ear and keep talking to Katy Hart when he heard why she was calling.

They were driving up to Houston to visit today. It hadn't been planned, but ever since they'd moved out here, the deal had always been that, unless advised that they were going to be too busy to receive them, their families were always welcome to drive over. There hadn't been any visits since before Halloween, and now, today, there'd be Maya's mother and father and her siblings, all of them in this house, in a matter of hours.

He could have said no. He could have lied again, said they were busy, but… no, he couldn't. So he told Katy Hart they couldn't wait to see everyone and, when they hung up, he dropped the phone on the bed, and sped off to the bathroom. Maya was sat on the ground still, lost somewhere in her thoughts as she recovered from the sickness. He crouched in front of her.

"Tub's edge?" She responded by holding her hands up to him. He took them and helped her up. When they were sitting on the edge together, he took a moment before telling her about the call. There was no time to waste, whether they liked it or not. "Your mom called."

"Did you talk to her?" she asked.

"Yeah… They're coming over."

"Oh…"

"What do you want to do?"

"Crawl back in bed? That's about it right now," she spoke low.

"It was a bad one this morning," he guessed, reaching over to tug a bit of sweaty hair stuck to her forehead back into place. "If you want, I can call back, tell them… something, anything, so they won't come." She shook her head. "Are you sure?"

"I want to see them," she confirmed.

"But we're still not telling them, right? Or are we?"

"Holidays," she maintained. "We should tell your family at the same time and they won't be here."

"Okay. Then we're going to have to talk to the others. And we'll have to put away the books. "Should I put away the knitting, too?" That made her laugh, just a little.

The next couple of hours saw the house in full activity, as the six roommates did their parts to ensure the place would be clean, free of any clues as to the grandchild in progress, which spanned from the books, to some small things in their room and in the bathroom, to a few papers in the kitchen, and scribbles on the calendar… Riley, Dylan, Sophie, and Chiara had all decided after a while to just go ahead and leave the house for the span of the Hunter Hart visit, diminishing chances of the secret coming out down to the parents to be.

"Starting to feel human again, so that's good, yeah?" Maya breathed as she came down the stairs after getting dressed. "Shower helped."

"Good," he smiled. "The others just left, so…"

"Hey, come here," she walked toward him.

"Yeah?" he asked, moving to meet her.

"I need you to hug me," she declared, and before he could get concerned on her, she went on to explain why. "It's going to sound silly, but I want you to tell me if anything… feels different… like noticeable," she gestured to indicate herself.

"For the record, nothing sounds silly from you, unless it's supposed to. Also, as a repeat hugger of you, I'm pretty sure the answer is no, everything feels the way it always does, but let me check anyway. For science," he nodded.

"Yeah, sure, just hug me already? Try and do it the way my mom does it?" He frowned, chuckling, before doing as told. "Hey, it could have been weirder, I almost said like my dad."

"Yeah, would have been weirder," he agreed. "As for the hug, it's like I said, sprout's keeping a low profile."

"Kid knows what's up," Maya nodded confidently.

"Yeah, kid does," he agreed with a slow tip of the head that suggested someone or something else didn't. She questioned him with a look, but he couldn't seem to find the words.

"Lucas, what is it?" she insisted, but he looked so awkward all of a sudden that she had to laugh. "Look at me here, we are having a _baby_, we didn't exactly get to that point by holding hands, so whatever it is, just… Wait," she closed her eyes. She got it now, even as her hand absently went to her chest. "Oh…" she laughed. "Well, they won't notice, will they? Not like they'll stare or anything… It'll be fine," she nodded, hoping to sound confident. After a moment, there was something she had to ask. "Do you ever get any feeling one way or another? Whether it's a girl or a boy?" He breathed, thinking about this for a moment.

"I didn't really, at first, but I mean we've only known for a couple of weeks, which is just… weird to think about. Last couple of days though, I don't know, I guess I do… a bit. But I try not to get too attached to the idea, because what if I'm wrong?"

"Then no one has to know but us," she promised him, smiling, waiting for his answer. He sighed, laughed.

"Girl," he finally confessed.

"Really… Interesting," she hummed. "Any reason?"

"Not really, I just… I keep seeing a little girl… What about you?"

"Well…" Maya trailed off for a moment. "I don't know, but ever since yesterday morning, I… I keep thinking about the baby and… it all comes out like… he sounds healthy, and… I can't wait to hold him, to see him…" She shrugged, smiling, especially with how his face was so lit up, even as he was presented with the opposite of the vision in his mind. "So, here we are. One of us will be right, and the other…"

"Will be just as happy," he filled in. "Which brings up… Are we waiting until the birth or do we find out before?"

"I'm good either way," she declared, then, "Actually, no I'm not. I kind of want to know. I want to be prepared. I know it's not like we know if the kid will be into… animals, or superheroes, or anything, so any decoration will be whatever we picked, but… I still want to know. But if you want to be surprised, we can wait, really. Don't just change your mind for me."

"I'm not," he promised. "I kind of wanted to know, too, but I would have waited if you didn't. So… whenever we get to find out…"

"Loser buys dinner," she smirked.

"I'd like to be paid in pizza," he told her as he leaned in to kiss her.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," she just went on smiling up at him before sighing. He didn't have to ask where her mood had slipped.

"It'll be fine, they won't know," he told her. "And if they find out then… then they'll just know. They're going to have to, sooner or later."

"Walking in with a baby will definitely be a giveaway," she agreed.

"Kinda, yeah," he smiled, then, after a moment, "Okay, my turn to ask you to do something."

"Another experiment?" she asked, intrigued, while he looked around in search of…

"Here, take this," he went to the couch and grabbed a cushion before bringing it to her.

"Right?" she frowned, not following.

"Both hands, like this, in front of you," he mimed, and she did the same. "Now, lift it up over your head, the way you do with the twins and MJ." She did as told, hoisting the cushion up in the air. He looked down, indicated for her to look. Arms still in the air, she looked to herself and saw what he was getting at. Her shirt had gone up with the motion of her arms, leaving that new curve suddenly in view.

"Damn…" she frowned, tossing him the cushion and tugging at the hem of her shirt. "So, I should change, right?"

"Either that or don't pick up your siblings," he nodded, knowing that wasn't about to fly. Maya huffed and hurried back upstairs. "What are you going to wear?" he called out.

"No idea!" she called back.

Five minutes later, Lucas ran up the stairs two at a time, stopping just inside their room to find her still digging inside the closet.

"Hey, they're pulling up now, are you…" She groaned, tossing a shirt overhead. He ducked and it flew past him.

"I'm not even showing that much, this is ridiculous!" she sighed, fishing around.

"Maya, they're here," he repeated. "Maya, hey…" She turned around. "Your family's here."

"What? No, I…" she motioned to herself.

"I'll stall, what about the other girls, maybe they have something?" he offered. Maya considered this for a moment before walking into the hall, looking to the doors leading into Riley's room and Sophie and Chiara's for a moment before heading into the second. The doorbell rang.

"I'll be right down, just be cool, yeah?" Maya told him, already digging through her friends' clothes.

"Yeah, sure, I…" he frowned to himself, feeling doubt rise.

"Go, go!" she pointed after the bell was rung a second time. He started to move away, then came back. "Lucas, come on!"

"That blue shirt of Chiara's, we washed it the other day?" She blinked.

"Might work, thanks, now go!" she begged as the bell rang a third time. She heard him hurrying down the steps as she looked through the closet until she found the blue shirt in question. She stuck it over her head, pulled it down, lifted her arms… The shirt did lift a bit, but it wouldn't show anything. Maya breathed, looking herself over one more time before moving to the stairs and climbing down as casually as she could.

"Maya!" Nellie came hurrying to the bottom of the steps, Gracie in tow. Lucas was still at the door with her parents. He had little MJ perched in his arms, and in all their preparation for this unplanned visit, the one thing they hadn't factored, the thing that risked busting them more definitely than anyone noticing she'd put on weight, involved Lucas being presented with a small child to hold. MJ Hunter, at all of eleven months, was a lively, cheerful boy, and his having much of Katy Hart in him, it also made it hard not to thing he looked like Maya… Maya, who felt in her gut that they were having a son…

_Come on, Huckleberry, pull it together_… It was all she could think, even as she was all smiles for her sisters. When she reached them, she scooped Nellie up at once, high in the air as always, which made her giggle, before bringing her close to kiss her chubby cheek and setting her back down on her feet. In almost the same motion she had Gracie up now, though when she went to set her back down again she wouldn't let go, so Maya stood back up straight and kept her sister in her arms. _That's one way like any other for no one to see anything_.

"Group hugs?" Maya asked Gracie with a smile as she walked toward her parents, the better to give Lucas time to shake that look on his face like he was the one with the easy tears these days.

"Hey," Katy laughed, finding herself hugged by not one but two of her daughters all of a sudden, the third one never to be left out and holding on to her mother's and her sister's legs.

"My turn?" Shawn asked after they parted.

"Got those dad hugs," Maya smirked.

"Yeah, I do," Shawn smiled confidently as he put his arm around both Maya and Gracie.

None of them had eaten yet, so they'd ended up heading out for lunch. Of all places, her parents wanted to go to _her _restaurant… where she worked… where pretty much everyone knew she was pregnant now. She was already picturing having to write to Leona, who'd be out there at this hour, to tell everyone not to say a word about the baby, but then Lucas had come to the rescue, suggesting it might be nice to go somewhere with a menu Maya wasn't so intimately aware of. Her parents had agreed, and so they'd headed elsewhere.

The meal was easy. Once they sat and were done figuring out what they would all be ordering, the conversation had carried on from the car. Even without alluding in any way to the pregnancy, they had plenty to talk about. School things, work things, the band, their friends… The same went with Maya's parents, and the twins, of course, who only got chattier by the day… Well, Nellie at least.

"I can't believe he's almost one already," Maya breathed, looking to her little brother in his seat, next to her. "You're getting so big already, MJ," she smiled down at him. He looked up at her, smiling that baby smile back at him and, damn, that mojo was working on her, too. She could feel herself tearing up all of a sudden, and she had to think quick. "Sorry, I just… I hate that I don't get to see him all that much," she told her mother and father, shaking her head as she tried to wipe away as many of her tears as possible and hoping there wouldn't be too many more.

"We'll do his party a week after his birthday, then you'll be back with us," Katy told her daughter from across the table. "Sound good?"

"Yeah, definitely," Maya replied before stealing a look toward Lucas, sitting on the other side of the high seat. He understood its meaning. _That's when we'll tell them_. His family would be at the party, too, it'd be all they needed.

They returned to the house after lunch. Even after over a year of their living away from home, it still struck them as so strange sometimes to find themselves receiving their parents into their home, to know that they were only visiting. They couldn't even stay too long, if they wanted to prevent having to get back to Austin too late.

The longer her family was with them, the more Maya felt as though she was stuck under a spotlight. How could they possibly not see that there was something different about her? She didn't _want_ them to see it, not yet, but it didn't mean she didn't feel like it was obvious. They _had_ to see it, had to notice something, anything.

She kept thinking about all the things they'd be dealing with in the months to come. They'd started to discuss it, Lucas and her, or at least they'd lightly grazed the surface. June 11th. That was her due date, they knew that now. The baby could come before that or after, and it was still months away, but not so far away that they didn't have to start thinking about.

For one thing, there was school. Everything in her said she'd have to take at least one semester off, but then she would also think it would better, simpler, for her to take the whole year off, just come back the fall after next and kick-start her third year in what was meant to be her fourth and final.

And today, with her parents here, even if she couldn't tell them the truth yet, wouldn't tell them yet, all she could think about was the possibility of Lucas and her being out here in Houston with a newborn, instead of in Austin, with their families… the grandparent squad. Except she couldn't just go back, could she? Lucas would still be school, and there was no way she was going to be in Austin with their baby while he was back in Houston. Whatever happened, wherever they ended up, it was the three of them together, always.

It was getting to be late afternoon when Maya's parents started going about packing up the twins and MJ and everything they'd brought with them before they could start on the drive home. Lucas had gone to help Shawn do all that, which left Maya alone with her mother for a few moments, and it didn't take long for Maya to guess this might have been orchestrated on purpose by her mother. She tried not to come off like she was panicking all of a sudden. Lucas had said it, if they found out, then they found out. It wouldn't be the way they'd hoped to have it happen, but the fact that they were even expecting their first child here and now was already defying this invisible future plan they'd always had, so…

"Maya, look at me," her mother spoke gently, and Maya turned to look at her, summoning everything in her that knew how to keep a straight face, no matter how much it felt like those abilities had been breaking away more and more over the last two weeks. "I know it wasn't an easy choice, when you came out here, knowing it meant being away from your sisters while they were growing up. And I also know that MJ coming along wasn't part of it either. Today, you got me thinking, and you know, I always want to look out for my kids, all four of you. If you need more time with your little brother, we can find a way, baby girl…"

As soon as she realized this sidebar conversation had nothing to do with the baby, Maya had felt herself relax just a bit. And then, to hear her mother say she'd get to see MJ more often, it had her so conflicted all over again, feeling the urge to just flat out tell her, right here and now, just say 'Mom, I'm pregnant' and have it out in the open, but also wanting to keep her mouth shut now that she knew that she and Lucas could have their reveal the way they wanted it.

"I'd love that," was all she could say, with new happy tears in her eyes. Her mother had smiled, looking close to tears, too, as she wrapped her arms around her. She gave her that good mom hug, and Maya melted right into it. She hadn't realized just how much she'd needed it until she was in it, nor had she known what it would feel like to let the past two weeks of whirlwinds and changes be translated into the way she held on to her mother.

"Maya? Hey, hey…" her mother rubbed at her back. "Is something wrong?"

"No…" she spoke, her voice warbled by tears. "I just missed you all, not just MJ."

"I miss you more than words can say," her mother told her. "But that's not all of it. You've been acting strangely all day, and not just you," Katy nodded out the window, to where Lucas was trying to convince Nellie to get into her parents' car. _If they find out, they find out…_ It didn't have to be all of them, did it? And this was her _mother_. Lucas would understand… She just hoped her mother would, too.

"Hart to Hart?" she asked, stealing another look out the door to ensure no one would come back. With those words, she'd made it plain to her mother, she couldn't tell anyone, not even Shawn. Her mother always said that no matter who came along, they would always have those years in them, those years when it had been the two of them alone.

"You and me, baby girl," Katy vowed, looking into her daughter's eyes. Maya felt her breath so tight in her chest for a moment.

"Not exactly," she told her, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out her phone, pulled up the recording. Just as her mother looked confused enough to ask what she was doing, the sound rang out from the speakers. The heartbeat… She watched her mother's face go from one confusion to another and then on to understanding in the span of three seconds, and then she was covering her mouth with her hand, softening her gasp.

"Maya…" she finally pulled that hand down as the recording reached its end and the room was quiet again.

"Please, don't be mad…" Maya spoke, her voice low, warbled with tears again.

"Mad? Oh, sweetie, no, no, never, oh…" Katy hugged her again, and Maya returned the embrace with a new release in her lungs. "How long have you known?"

"About two weeks… Halloween night. We were going to tell all of you when we came home for the holidays, and I… I still want to do that, even if it means…"

"Not telling your father?" her mother guessed.

"If you don't mind keeping it from him for the next month?" Maya tentatively asked as they pulled back from their hold.

"I won't say a word to him," Katy shook her head. She was looking at her now, and there were those tears in her eyes, taken with the realization that her baby girl was to have a baby of her own. "But _you_… You call me, write me, any time, for anything, alright?"

"I will," Maya nodded at once.

"You've been to the doctor's," she nodded to the phone in her hand. "What did they say?"

"Everything looks good, sounds good… June 11th," Maya revealed, and her mother got that trembling smile again, nodding to each bit of information. "They asked about family history, I… I told them what I remembered you telling me from your side, but on the other…"

"You leave that to me, alright? I'll get you what you need to know," Katy told her, then, from the look on her face, "I won't tell anyone, I swear."

"I think they're done out there…" Maya reached to dry her face after she'd looked out the window.

"Alright, then I'll call you tomorrow morning, we can talk some more, yeah?"

"Please." Katy smiled, hugging her one more time.

"Alright… Can you get Lucas back in here while you go say goodbye to the others?"

The moment she'd stepped out of the house and he'd seen her face, Lucas knew she'd told her mother. She was covering that fact, though, so he also figured she didn't plan on telling her father, not today at least. She sent him back inside, on the excuse that she was trying to find this magazine she meant to lend her mother. So, he went, re-entering the house to find Katy Hart waiting for him. When she saw him, he wasn't sure what'd she say or do, but then she came up to him, pressing her hands to his shoulders.

"So, she told you?" he had to say, couldn't keep quiet. "And you're… are you…"

"Lucas, breathe," Katy told him, smiling.

"Maya keeps having to remind me to do that, too," he admitted, smiling back.

"Listen, I know it's not the same thing, but I also know you won't get to talk to your own mother about any of this for some time, so I want you to know, if you ever need to talk, it's like I told Maya, you can call me, write me, anytime." He didn't think it would hit him the way it did for her to say that, but when it did, he must have looked like he needed some of that mom hugging, too, because that was what she gave him. Right then and there, Katy Hart earned all his trust that she'd be a solid grandma…

After she left, Lucas watched her get in the car, watched Maya wave as her family drove off before coming back inside. Now that it was just them again, and after having told one of their parents, it felt like they were exhaling, finding their footing again. Maya came over to him and he closed his arms around her, kissed the top of her head.

"You alright?" he asked.

"So much," she nodded. "I'm really glad they all came. I needed to see them, even if I haven't told the others yet. And I think… I know… They're going to be so happy when they find out, too," she told him, and he smiled, feeling that hope in her shining back on to him. He felt it, too, and he truly couldn't wait until the day he would finally get to tell them.

"Then, I think we need to pull out all the stops, make it a good surprise. Christmas morning?" She smiled, nodding.

"Christmas morning."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	6. Day by Day

_Chapter 6_  
_Day By Day_

When she woke up the next morning and saw the sun had not yet come up, she was left wondering whether her timely sprout kept to a regular schedule depending on when she usually woke up… or whether it was only a matter of her waking up, regardless of the time. For a few minutes, she just lay there, breathing in, breathing out, focusing on the feeling of Lucas' hand laid lightly over that roundness rising from her belly. She'd been staring at that hand so many mornings, it was only a matter of time before she picked up brushes and paint and canvas and set that image down forever.

She wasn't given a respite from her bathroom dash after all, but by the time Lucas had woken up and come to look in on her, she'd decided something. It was still early, it was Sunday, and even though her mother had said she'd call her today, she didn't want to have this conversation over the phone, not after how long she'd waited to have it. She was going to Austin.

"Want me to drive you? What if you're stuck in traffic and you have to…" Lucas offered.

"I'll be fine," Maya insisted. "You go to work."

The sun came up as she was driving into Austin. She spent much of the ride breathing as calmly and evenly as she could, trying to ensure that she would hold her word to Lucas, that she'd be fine. At the same time, just knowing that she was on her way to see her mother, that they would get to talk about her pregnancy, about the baby, seemed to be doing the trick, too, so she focused on that. She drove all the way to Ma Maggie's before parking out front and texting her mother.

_Hart to Hart, face to face? I'm outside MM's, appetite is rising._

A few minutes went by before she got a response. Her father was taking MJ to a pediatrician's appointment and the twins to a play date with their friends. She'd been planning to call her once they were all gone, but now that she was out here, she'd find a way to get out to her as soon as possible. Maya sat waiting in the car for about fifteen minutes before she couldn't keep fidgeting in that seat anymore. She got out and went into the restaurant, already having been spotted and waved to by one of the waitresses who remembered her very well.

"Morning, sweetie, is your family coming to join you?" the waitress at the door greeted her with a smile.

"Uh, just my mom," Maya smiled back, brushing her hand through her hair, trying to act casual. "It might be a while before she comes though, so can I get a milkshake? Strawberry?"

"Sure," she smiled, starting toward the back to get her milkshake, though Maya did see her taking a look back, as though she thought she'd seen something and wanted to get a second look to either confirm or deny what she had seen or not seen.

Maya quickly went and sat in the usual booth, which was empty. She might have said 'thankfully empty,' but then it was so early, the restaurant had only just opened, and she was the first one there, so _everything _was open. Either way, she was still thankful. Under this table, she and Lucas had left their mark, he was here with her, even if he was back in Houston. If she was left here long enough, she had half a mind to add a mark for their sprout. Joke or not, she'd had the thought one second, and on the next she'd just smiled to herself, imagining those carvings under there, one for him, one for her, and the sprout, and then years from now, who knew how many more marks there could be?

She tried to pace herself with the milkshake once she got it. She texted Lucas, letting him know she'd made it to Austin and was waiting on her mother. When she mentioned the table and the urge to scratch for the baby, he'd replied in about the best way to guarantee she would hold off. _We'll do it together, the first time we bring him or her there. We need a name to scratch._

After nearly ten minutes of spinning and twisting and biting at her straw once the tall glass was good and empty, Maya looked up just as her mother came through the door. She took a breath, rising out of the booth and moving into Katy's arms, outstretched at the ready. As good as the previous day's hugs had been, relieved from keeping her secret, this one felt even better and it was proof enough she'd done the right thing by driving out here so early.

"Sorry it took a while," her mother shook her head as they pulled away from one another.

"No, it's okay," Maya insisted. "I'm the one who changed the plan… all the plans," she breathed out. Her mother looked like she was about to cry as she smiled, and Maya had to wonder whether she'd been doing that in private since the day before, processing the news where she could? "Oh, please, no, my hormones are crazy, if you start, I won't be able to stop," she shook her head. She could do a whole series on the silly things she'd cried over in the last two weeks.

"Right, no, I've got this," Katy nodded, checking the corners of her eyes for any runaway tears. "I'm good, we're good, see?" Maya laughed, taking a deep breath. "I've got you," her mother reached out, giving her eyes the same check. "Did you eat yet?"

"Just a milkshake while I was waiting, bit of toast before I left. Starving now…"

So, they sat at the booth, putting in their orders without a look to the menus. Maya just kept thinking back to the night of hers and Lucas' fifth anniversary, just one day onward from finding out about the baby, sitting at the Nook and having no idea she could eat, should eat, wanted to eat… She was much more secure about all that now, which was more of a relief than she could say. Once the orders had been made, mother and daughter looked back to one another with matching shy smiles. It still felt so weird to actually be sitting here together, talking about all this, about her having a baby…

"I wanted to tell you… from the moment I saw the first test was positive," Maya shook her head, recalling the moment.

"The first one?" her mother smiled. "How many did you take?"

"Eight?" Maya admitted, squinting. Her mother chuckled. "I was nervous, okay? There were so many, and what if they were wrong? How many did _you_ get when you had me?" she challenged. Katy cleared her throat.

"Not eight," she replied. At her daughter's pointed look, she admitted. "Seven."

"Ha!" Maya grinned. Her mother went on to explain that day to her, how she'd first bought one, carried it into the store bathroom, done all she had to do, and when the test had come back positive, she'd gone right back up the aisle, grabbed another, slapped it on the counter along with her money. She and the cashier had played this dance over and over, until, after the seventh, the woman had looked at the eighteen-year-old Katy and said plainly what she'd needed to be told. _The result won't change even if you pee on every last one of the tests in here._

"Anyway, I get the nervous thing… Scared to death…" Katy shook her head.

"How long did it take before you weren't scared?" Maya had to ask.

"A few weeks," her mother revealed. "I didn't know if I could do it, if I could be someone's mom." Maya could see on her face that she sort of felt bad for admitting it, knowing what it suggested, but really she would never have held it against her. Certainly, _now_, when she was the one about to become someone's mother, she could understand that feeling.

"What changed your mind?" she asked, and all it took was the way her mother looked back at her and she knew the answer. Her father. Her father had changed her mother's mind. "Really?"

"It took a week before I actually told him I was pregnant, and he was scared, too, I mean for like two weeks he was just in another world, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Then, one day, it was like he'd flipped a switch, he came to me, and we talked, and by the end of it… we were all in."

Hearing the story, she could just picture it all so clearly, and what it left her with was this very strange feeling in her gut. This thought that her father, the one who'd left them, who'd shaped both their lives the way he'd done by being gone… She might actually owe him a debt of gratitude, of life? What might have happened to her if he hadn't convinced her mother? They might have given her up, they might… she might never have been born at all. And her little Junesprout…

"Hey…" her mother called her back to attention. Maya looked up. "Tell me what happened? After you bought _eight_ pregnancy tests," she smiled, which in turn tugged a matching expression on her daughter's face.

"I mean… I didn't take them all at once, just four. And then the party was starting so we didn't get to see what they said for a few hours…" She told her mother about Halloween night, taking those first tests and then having to leave them languishing hidden in the closet until they could manage to go back up there, Lucas and her together, how she'd evaded the party a couple times, in the basement with Willow, up in hers and Lucas' room… And then, finally, they'd gone, and they'd looked, one by one, each test telling them the same thing, that they were having a baby. "And that's when I did the other four."

"Why, in case you got all the defective tests in the store?"

"That's what I said!" Maya laughed. "They were all positive, too… obviously." She remembered that feeling, when it became real, when it wasn't just a possibility anymore. She wasn't scared, she was just happy. She told her mother as much, feeling again that little bit of apprehension like her mother would be upset at her for wanting this, now, at this point in her life when she should have been working toward her future, her education. Her mother was not yet forty, and now she would be someone's grandmother…

"You and Lucas, you've gone through a whole lot of road these last few years, more than most young people your age. So, really… I can see it," Katy tipped her head to her, smiling. "I know this baby is going to come into… a really loving home," her eyes began to shine with tears, no longer able to hold them back as she reached across the table to squeeze her firstborn's hand. Maya squeezed back, her own easy tears showing themselves all at once.

"We really need to pull it together, they're going to think someone's dying," she grabbed a napkin to dab at her eyes. "And if they find out, they might say something next time Dad comes in here."

"Why did you come here instead of somewhere a little less… familiar?" Katy asked. Maya looked at her like this was a silly question.

"It's Ma Maggie's, where else would I go? Do you know how bad I've been wanting to come here lately?" she asked, tapping the menu in front of her.

"Alright, fair enough," Katy smiled, nodding along. "So, I have to ask, everything is going alright with you?"

"Nothing I didn't expect," Maya assured her, "And the doctor was really pleased with everything there was to see so far. We're on track."

"June baby," her mother recalled, and Maya nodded.

"If this keeps up, I won't be able to hide it for much longer," she admitted, going on to tell her mother about hers and Lucas' tests the day before, the hug, the shirt swap… She could tell her mother was curious to see now, though if they were trying not to have anyone figure out the truth anyplace where the news might somehow have made its way back to Shawn, or the Friars, then she couldn't just stand up and lift her shirt for all to see. "Be right back," she got up from the booth, heading for the ladies' room.

It wasn't ideal, especially having to hurry in case anyone came in, but for the time being it was all that she had. Pulling her shirt just high enough, she turned to the side, brandishing her phone with the camera on, the better to capture the progress of her eight-week growth. Really, it wasn't _so_ out there, not yet, and maybe it was really just evident to people who knew her enough to see the difference, but sometimes she would get a look of her reflection, shirt down and all, and she could just see it. Now, with the shirt up, sideways, it wasn't so much that it was the curve alone but the curve in relation to the rest of her. Staring at herself like that, it was clear as day.

Returning to the booth a minute later, she found their plates had arrived, and her stomach seemed to give an audible demand for her to hurry up and dig in already, so that was what she did, after sitting and sliding her phone over to her mother. Katy looked to the picture taken back in the bathroom and Maya felt an odd sense of pride for the smile that spread over her mother's face as she took in the image.

"So, come on, what's going through your mind?" her mother asked, and Maya looked at her. It was one of those occasions where she would look at her, look at the woman she had become over the past eight years, and she would think about who she'd been before all that, and she would think… She wasn't the only one who'd done some growing up throughout those years. Now Katy was looking at her, seeing through their laughs and their happy tears, seeing the questions twisting through her… Maya sighed, setting her fork down.

"I don't know, it's just…" she shook her head, searching for the right words. "I know that some things will have to happen, so does Lucas, and whatever it has to be, to make sure this baby has the best life it can have, we're going to do it. We will," she swore to her mother. "I just… I don't know what those things are going to be, not yet…"

"Things like what?" her mother asked. Maya picked up a bit of food with her fingers, went chewing at it for a few beats.

"Like… moving back to Austin?" she looked back up to her mother.

"Oh…" Katy blinked, surprised. "Why?"

"Because the thought of us being out in Houston on our own instead of here, with you, and dad, and Lucas' family… It doesn't feel right. So, we have to come back… somehow."

For a while, they'd been turning that goal around in their heads, thinking about what they would have to do, what they'd need to gain… and what they stood to lose.

"There's still time," her mother told her, and Maya could do nothing else but take it to heart. She wouldn't find her answer today, certainly not without Lucas there with her, and even though they would have to have a plan before the baby came along, they could give themselves some breathing room for the time being. "Whatever you decide, if you're not sure…"

"I'll call you," Maya promised.

They'd talked on for a good while before Maya got back on the road for Houston. She drove right for the bookstore, knowing Lucas would be coming up on his lunch break, and after spending nearly five hours on the road that morning, all she wanted was go and see his face, see that smile he'd get when she showed up and he didn't expect her.

X

_FOUR WEEKS LATER_

Before they knew it, they were midway through December, a couple of days from heading down to Austin for the holidays. They guessed the end of the semester, with finals and projects had a way of making time fly by, more so with the whirlwind brought on by the pregnancy. But then here they were, on that morning, and even as she woke Maya felt like this might be the first time in weeks that she didn't feel nausea creeping up on her. This was good, and it was normal, she knew. She was coming up to the other end of _that_ tunnel, but at the same time she didn't want to jinx it, so she kept on lying there… waiting.

The last month had required both her and Lucas to just keep moving forward, to focus on everything that was happening at the moment and not so much about what they would do later on. All those questions about Austin versus Houston and everything that came with that, they'd set it to the back burner, telling themselves that, when the semester would be done, when they would be able to stop and actually think it through, they would find an answer.

And now, here they were. No more classes, no more finals. No more waiting.

"Are you doing itsy bitsy spider?" Maya asked, looking down as she felt the brush of fingertips walking their way up the curve of her belly.

"Little bit," Lucas yawned. He was barely awake, but then all those mornings over the past month and a half had left them wanting to enjoy what brief time they had before this peace of theirs came to a screeching halt. She didn't tell him just yet, about feeling in no way nauseated so far, for fear she might jinx herself. "I can't wait to feel it move," he breathed, his hand brought to lay flat as she lay her own over his, clasping his fingers.

"I can't either," she smiled. After a minute or so like this, she turned on to her back and sat up a bit. They could both see it now, just enough that it left no room for doubt whether or not she was pregnant. Over the last week, she'd had no choice but to notice it was getting trickier to dress herself in any way that wouldn't put her growing belly in evidence. Sure, by now, pretty much anyone in their Houston circles was aware of the pregnancy, but the reflex remained in her to hide it, while their families continued to be in the dark.

They _had_ seen their families in the last month, a couple of times each, and every time it had felt like walking around with something fragile in their hands, always on the verge of being cracked open. Maya was sure that, if they didn't have Katy as something like a buffer, because she already knew, they would never have succeeded, they would have slipped sooner or later. But they had held on, and Katy was still the only one who knew. They were going to get to do their big reveal. Soon, the secret would be out, and she wouldn't have to hide anymore. She was going to flaunt as much as she wanted.

"I woke up somewhere in the middle of the night, I could hear you whispering… Having deep conversations with the sprout, were you?" she inquired, smiling down at him as he turned on his side, propping himself up on his elbow.

"I couldn't sleep," he gave as his answer. "I didn't want to wake you." She might have spoken up, revealing herself to be awake, if she'd known, but then she'd just laid there, unable to do anything but to listen to him as he spoke to their son or daughter, telling their sprout about how his day had gone, pausing to insert some kind of context or other background information where he felt it might be necessary. In the end, she'd been lulled back to sleep by it. "I know it's early, for hearing, for..."

"Ears," she mimed, making him smile. "You should keep doing it," she told him. "Night or day."

"Sort of feels weird to just… talk _at_ you," he pointed out as he sat up.

"Weirder than me talking at myself?" Maya countered. His eyebrows raised, asking. "Mostly it's like… talking to a partner, like 'come on, let's do this.' Sometimes, it's just… whatever I'm feeling, stress, or a little panicking, I've got someone to talk to, and they don't argue back a whole lot."

"Okay, but let me just give you the visual," he scooted down, lying on his stomach, up on his elbows, his face level with her growing bump. "Does this feel weird to you?" he asked the bump, waited for an answer, looked back up to her face. Maya was just all smiles, even as she felt her eyes start to sting with the promise of tears.

"Not even a little," she told him. He smiled back, crawling his way back up to her until he could kiss her. After a few seconds, he paused, pulling back to look at her.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, which was as good as asking 'do you feel like you're going to be sick?' It had become so much of a daily thing for them that even he was caught off guard by the lack of bathroom dashing.

"So far, so good," she bowed her head, breathed out. If they were really coming out on to the other end of that, then it seemed like they both knew… Now was the time. They needed to start and consider those big questions, not just tiptoe around them but really wade in. They couldn't go home to tell their families and not have a plan at the ready, they had to be able to show that they knew where they were headed.

"You still feel sure about Austin?" Lucas asked. Maya slowly nodded.

"But if _you _don't, I don't want you to…"

"I'm with you all the way, okay? Whatever you need, and if I have any… uncertainties… I will let you know," he promised. She breathed out. Lucas sat up, taking her hand.

"If we go back to Austin at the end of the next semester, we… We're not coming back, to Houston, not to stay." He didn't have to reply; it was the thing they'd both known, even though they wouldn't say it. They knew what it meant.

It was one thing to be ready to make sacrifices. It was a whole other thing to accept the loss. They loved their life here. This house, with their roommates, their jobs, their friends, their school… Some of it wouldn't be _gone_ gone, they knew that. Their friends would still be their friends, whether they were a few minutes away or a couple of hours away. Their friends up in New York, in Boston, they were proof enough, proof but also concern. The geographical distance was enough to also force at least some… emotional distance, too. They weren't in their lives the same way, and now the same would happen with everyone else, too. They'd all be out here, and the two of them would be on their own, back in Austin.

Their jobs… Well, they'd been working before they'd moved to Houston, hadn't they? Maya had been at the diner, and Lucas at the museum. When the time had come, they'd resigned, and there'd been little more to it than that… But now, here, it was different. Tracy Coleman, Rosa and Pete, and Chef Isabel and all the staff both in the kitchen and in the dining room, they had become something so much closer, more like family, and the thought of leaving them behind was a genuine ache. The best they could tell themselves to dull it was that, sooner or later, they would have had to quit anyway. It wasn't a total fix, but it was the best they had.

It was school though, that was the biggest hang-up. They would have to go through the process to get themselves into another school, and even when they got in and started going to class again, either in the coming fall or the year after that, they would have lost something irreplaceable. Lucas had loved getting to know his uncle Hank in his capacity as a professor, and though they would still see each other, as family, the rest would be gone. And Maya… She would lose Professor Robinson, who had been such an influence to her over the past two years. There was so much more they could have done, and she knew it. And yet…

And yet, it would have to be done. For how much they would miss the parts of their Houston life they loved so much, none of it would change the fact that they knew that being close to their parents was what they needed the most, and that being close to them would be best for their baby.

"We'll make it work," Lucas vowed, holding her gaze with all the self-assurance he could muster. "You, me, and the good listener," he reached down to set his hand just over her belly button.

"That's a good sprout," Maya crooned. Lucas looked back to her, finding the smile already wavering. "I want to believe, I do, it's just… The unknown feels a lot scarier when it's not just about you and me anymore. The two of us, we've gotten this far, we can do it, but in there… That kid's brand new, and whatever happens, it's going to shape him or her…" she breathed, her own hand settling just under the belly button. "I want to get it right."

"So do I," he promised, stretching his little finger to nudge against her thumb. "More than anything."

"I do know that… it's going to be the two of us out there, looking after the baby, loving it, and each other, and I know that'll count for a lot, which is probably the reason why I only freak out a little, just…" she pressed her index and thumb nearly together. He nodded in agreement. "I just need… I need…"

"You need to be in Austin," he guessed.

"I do," she breathed.

"Then, we'll do that," he nodded. She nodded back. "I'll start looking for work out there before we go back, maybe… maybe I can get my job back at the museum."

"I've missed that blazer," she gave a weak attempt at the joke.

"I'll have to find something else, too, two something elses if the museum doesn't work out."

"Two…" she frowned, not following.

"You won't be able to get a job for a while after the baby's born," he pointed out. "And… we'll need the money." That was kind of the other big thing, wasn't it? No matter how they calculated it, they would need help there. They felt secure that their parents would want to help, and they wouldn't have much choice but to accept, but it would still feel like they should have been able to do this on their own. "At least we have somewhere to go… Even if it's just until we get on our feet." The house, _his_ house, signed over to him by his grandfather… _Their _house, if they so chose to make it that.

"No, I want us to stay there," she told him, a happily determined and determinedly happy look on her face. "We should. Think about it… Sitting out there, watching our kid running around in all that space… I know, sure, I was a big city kid, New York, all of that, but even in all that, I know some part of me would have wanted nothing more than open spaces and so much running. Pappy Joe gave us that."

"I can't wait for him to find out about the baby," Lucas smiled. Maya bit back a laugh. "What are you going to call him, huh?" he moved back down to 'aim' his voice at their unborn child. "Great Pappy Joe?"

"Oh, he'll love _that_," Maya lost hold of that laugh now. It wouldn't be long now, they'd get to tell. For once, the butterflies in her stomach were kind enough to remain butterflies and leave her peace to enjoy the start of the day and the rest along with it.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	7. The Start of Everything

_Chapter 7_  
_The Start of Everything_

The night before the roommates were set to drive into Austin, the house was in full activity. Everyone was slowly but surely getting their packing done… most everyone. Lucas had gotten the suitcases down, he's started pulling together the clothes he meant to take along for their extended stay with their families over the holidays. He was also alone, waiting for Maya to get back. All he knew was that she'd texted him a little while ago, letting him know that she'd just thought of something she needed before they went to Austin. She would be home as soon as she got it.

They were going to be headed into full on stealth mode the next day. A whole week of hiding her growing baby bump from their families, from anyone who might blow the secret before the day they finally made their big reveal. There were so many ways this could go wrong. By now, it really felt as though it was all over her face, in all the changes her body was going through. All it would take would be for someone to see something they weren't supposed to see yet and it would all be over. In one house, they had sneaky toddlers, all too prone to tell anything to anyone, and in the other, they had… well, Melinda Friar.

Maya's return was announced by the barking of Trix and Lou downstairs. A minute later, she came walking into the room, the dogs on her heels. She had a shopping bag in her hand, but one look at her told him this bag only carried the clothes she'd been wearing when she left the house that morning. For the most part, she was still able to wear her own clothes, though some of it was already being set aside until after the baby because they had frustrated her for their tightness and she had banished them out of sight.

"If you keep this up, you won't have any clothes left," Lucas had told her a couple days back, after another pair of pants was sent to the land of discarded items. She'd given him a look at this suggestion, and it felt like his ears were on fire.

Now here she came along, with a new jacket she was looking very pleased to be wearing, going by the smile on her face as she turned and showed it to him.

"Did the old one finally reach banishment?" he guessed.

"It was getting there," she tipped her head. "I just saw it and figured if I randomly went and got a new coat while we were in Austin there might be questions…"

"Sounds fair," Lucas smiled, then, deducing that the coat hadn't so much been her intended purchase and more so a last minute addition on top of what she had actually wanted to get. She had also been wearing pants that morning, whereas he could now see stockings and the hem of a skirt peeking out from under the new jacket. "So, what's under there," he pointed to her. She gave an innocent smile, undoing the front of the new jacket and showing the dress underneath.

"For Christmas and all that," she told him. "Once the sprout becomes public knowledge…"

All these weeks, the whole goal had been for her clothes _not_ to show her growing bump, but now suddenly, in this new dress of hers… there it was, in all its glory. Maya did say she was looking forward to flaunting the fact that she was expecting, as soon as she could, which was to say 'as soon as our families know,' and with this dress she could finally do it.

Lucas walked across the room toward her, the smile on his face just… impossible to dislodge. Standing there, her little three-month belly visible beneath the touch of the fabric… All he felt was love, so much of it. He leaned in and kissed her.

"Ready for tomorrow?" he asked, slipping his arms around her waist. She let out a breath, considering the question. What did ready even mean, with this?

"Is that a thing?" she asked back with a side smile. He gave a shrug. "I mean, at least I'm done with the toilet bowl dash every morning, so that's one less chance for them to find out our little secret ahead of time."

"Our lemon-sized secret," he offered, making her laugh.

"It's not the first time I've had to keep things from them," Maya went on. "I seem to recall, after our first time together, _you_ had to climb out the basement window when my parents came home. And did you get murdered?"

"No, no, I lived," he squinted, smiling. "Had a stare down with a cat while I was crouched on the side of the house, waiting for your parents to finish getting the twins into the house," he recalled.

"That poor cat," Maya shook her head. He frowned, not following. "Got hit by a car that summer we were in Europe, remember?"

"Oh…" he did remember, almost feeling bad about bringing up the encounter.

"Anyway," Maya got back on track, "You and I will be fine. We'll go out there, we'll hang with our families. It's just one more week," she tapped his arms. "We've got this," she promised, her voice the definition of chill.

"How do you plan on sidestepping all the hugging that's about to happen?" he asked. "Because I can tell you right now, I can definitely feel it this time," he looked down to where her little belly kept bumping into him.

"I… have not figured that part out," she admitted. "I could walk around with a dog in my arms at all times, or… I could say I've got a cold, real bad, so no one will get close to me. We could _both_ have a cold, it'll sell the story even better."

"We could just tell them tomorrow and be done with it," Lucas offered.

"No, come on," she shook her head. "We have a plan, we stick to the plan. Christmas Eve."

"Christmas Eve," he repeated, agreeing.

They'd been carrying this secret around for a month and a half, they could do this for one more week, right? Sure, they had the security of a two-hour drive to cushion their chances… and their track record for keeping the secret under wraps with their local entourage had been… the opposite of stellar… but they could do this, they could… _And if they find out, then they find out._

Bags were packed and left downstairs by the time everyone went to bed. In the morning, Trix and Lou would be brought to Rosa's house, there to stay until they all returned from their time in Austin. The cars would be packed, and then, finally, they would leave Houston for the start of their holidays with their families. Much as the car would soon fill with the usual spirit of that long drive, Lucas could sense Maya was more quiet than usual. One look turned to her whenever he could justify taking his eyes off the road ahead would find her lost in thought. He only had to see the way her hand hovered over the hidden bump to know what she was thinking of.

They'd been reassured by Katy's reaction to the news, they'd become taken with planning their big Christmas reveal to Shawn and the Friars, but there was still that caution in her, the tiniest blip that kept her concerned about what would happen if any of them didn't see the coming of their child as something wonderful. She had already lived a parental rift, most of her life with her birth father, and then something of a whole other nature but still so very painful in the months following the accident after Sophie's party. If it happened again, if it happened over their son or daughter, there was no question as to what either of them would be compelled to do. From the moment they'd flipped those sticks, they'd placed the well-being of their sprout ahead even of their own.

He could try and reassure her all he wanted, she would still hold tight to that bit of uncertainty until the cards fell, one way or the other.

As they reached Austin, they started to make their drop-offs. Sophie and Chiara were left to the Zvolensky home, Dylan to the Orlandos, Riley to Mr. & Mrs. Matthews. Finally, it was just the two of them… three of them… on their way to the Hunter-Hart house. As ever, they would alternate between her parents and his as far as where they stayed, but in order to put chances in their favor, they decided to spend the first week at her parents' and then the second, _after_ they had told their secret, would be spent at his parents' house.

"Are you sure you want to be staying anywhere near my mother right after she finds out you're pregnant? She's going to change your whole diet, she'll pull out books…"

"I don't mind," Maya promised him with a smile. "If she's got anything to share, I want to hear it." Mostly, she wanted, she _sought_ acceptance. She needed to see joy on their faces, so she could let her own flow out.

They got a small break upon their arrival in that Shawn was out with the twins on a 'special errand,' which meant that their welcoming committee was formed of already-aware Katy and still-speechless MJ.

"Let me get a look at you while I can," Katy reached for her daughter's hand and pulled her into a hug for a few seconds before pulling back and looking down at her. Maya opened up her jacket and her mother reached out, laying her hand to that little belly. It made her well up and smile, as Maya could only look on with nothing short of pride. "You're growing so fast, you…"

"Just one baby," Maya told her. "Trust me, I made them check." Lucas bit back a laugh, recalling that appointment, how she kept telling them that there were twins in a few branches of the sprout's family tree. There were Nellie and Gracie, of course, but even her grandmother, Kermit's mother, was a twin, and on Lucas' side he had made her aware of some distant twin cousins, and even a set of triplets, somewhere around Pappy Joe's time, though he didn't know much about them either except that they existed. When he'd told her this, Maya's eyes had gone a bit buggy, no doubt picturing her short-statured frame growing heavy with three babies at once.

"She's right on track," Lucas told Katy, recalling what the doctor had said at their last appointment.

"Look. I haven't managed to send you this one yet," Maya pulled out her phone, where she'd taken a picture of their last ultrasound images. They had the printed ones back home, on her nightstand… She couldn't stop looking at them, looking at how their sprout looked more and more like a person, features more and more defined, as defined as they could get in this medium. She was mesmerized, as was Lucas, as were their friends, and now Katy, too. Whatever question marks would continue to hover overhead until Christmas, Katy Hart was giving them everything they could hope for from an expecting grandmother.

"Oh, now, I think this guy is making the most of his diaper…" Katy remarked soon after, getting a whiff of the one-year-old in her arms.

"Ooh, hand him over," Maya reached out for her brother.

"Practice?" Katy supposed. Maya just gestured again and MJ was handed over.

"Alright, Matty boy, let's do this," Maya moved toward the stairs and climbed up with the fussy boy in her arms. Lucas watched them go before heading to the car to go and get their bags. Katy came and helped him, which he appreciated for more than one reason. He'd been on the lookout for an opportunity to speak with her alone, as soon as possible, and now here it was.

"Uh, can I talk to you about something?" he asked as they stood at the car, grabbing the last of the bags, containing everything they'd need for the next two weeks and presents. When Katy looked back at him, he took a breath, hesitating briefly as he snuck a look back to the house. "I have something that I want to do, but there's… it's complicated."

"You know, there was a time where I would not be the person you came to when the word 'complicated' was involved," Katy remarked to herself. "Now, instead, I get to ask: Complicated how?" Lucas looked at her, at the house again.

"Maybe this is just one more sign of why your daughter has been calling me Huckleberry all these years, but see there's a box in the safe at my bank, and in that box I keep a gift that my grandmother left me before she died. It's never really been mine, I've always been like its… keeper… It's belonged to Maya since before I even knew her, and it would have been hers in a couple of years, but now a lot of plans have changed. Before I can give it to her though… Everything I've been raised to be says I'm supposed to ask her father first," he explained.

He kept Katy's gaze even as she realized what he was getting at. Her breath seemed to get caught in her throat, staring back at him.

"If that's the case," he went on, leaving her to regain her voice on her own time, "Well, I won't be able to do anything until after we've made our big reveal… Then I tell myself that I'd like to do this before the reveal, before it's all out there, but then that'd mean not asking her father, and never mind that my family wouldn't let me hear the end of it, but then what if _he_ took it the wrong way…" He paused, breathed. "But then I realized I was looking at the whole thing the wrong way, and not only would this be the right way, but it would also be… something everyone could agree on."

"What's that?" Katy asked, borrowing his move by sneaking a look back to the house, in case Maya was done upstairs and was now looking for them. When she turned back again, she found a sort of nervous but determined young man staring back at her.

"If you knew the number of stories she's told me over the years, of you and her… You're the one who's been looking out for her, all her life, you… you made the decision that even brought her into my life, so if I am looking for anyone's blessing here about asking Maya to marry me… it's yours."

Inside the house, up in the nursery, Maya had gotten her little brother changed relatively fast, though once she was done, holding the much relieved boy in her arms, she'd found herself looking around the room, thinking of her own days of diapering, just half a year away. She and Lucas were planning to go and have a look at Pappy Joe's house while they were in Austin… _Their_ house, by the end of the next semester, their baby's house…

Back down the stairs she'd gone, with MJ reaching out his little hand to the pictures lining the stairway as they went, the quiet of the house left her searching for both her boyfriend and her mother, only to find them standing outside by the car, deep in conversation. By some chance, she looked down to her brother just in the moment where she might have found a startled look on their faces. Instead, when she looked up again, they were moving back to join her, and that was that.

They were all settled in by the time Shawn returned home with the twins, who spotted Lucas first and rushed him as one, knowing he was good for catching and scooping them up, which he did. This allowed the initial greetings between Maya and the rest of her family to go off without any unintentional revelations. Next thing they knew, day one was behind them. Tomorrow would be harder, they knew, what with MJ's delayed first birthday party bringing so many people together, including _his_ family. It was a good thing they'd have their roommates on hand, too, along with Katy, to cause a diversion or two.

Lying in bed that night, with Maya having gone right to sleep while he remained wide awake, Lucas was left to consider his next move. He'd come seeking a blessing, and now he had it. He'd needed to go and retrieve the rings he'd been given by his grandmother, and earlier that day he'd done it. He wanted to make his proposal before they told their families about the baby, and this was where things got trickier. The when, the where, the how, all of it seemed to get tripped up with their need to keep the sprout hidden until everyone got together on Christmas Eve…

_So, just do it on Christmas Eve, too. Same day, just earlier…_

All his concerns really hinged on Maya more than anyone else. He wanted this to be a moment they would both remember, a moment they'd recall. He didn't want it to feel like an afterthought. And if he wanted to catch her by surprise, well she'd definitely be focusing on the eve, the sprout reveal… and then he would get his shot at delivering his very own surprise.

The next few days became something like a dance, with strategy and secrets for choreography. Hide the sprout. Get ready to reveal the sprout. Get ready to propose… And all through that, they had their families, they had Christmas drawing nearer… Every night, as they'd get back to Maya's old room and climb into bed, knowing they'd succeeded in what they were aiming to do, they would feel just a bit more of that weight lifted. Getting closer… closer and closer…

Then, finally, they woke up and it was December 24th. As they looked at each other, there was something like a giddy frenzy in them. This was it… This was the day that would change everything.

It was one of those rare days where he woke up before she did. Still, rare or not, they might have been his favorites. There was always something about seeing someone in the midst of sleep, like they either revealed another side of themselves or showed exactly who you knew them to be. When they were little, he remembered waking up in the middle of the night, when he and his friends would be having a sleepover. There'd be Zay, always with a sort of concentrated look on his face like he was having a very intricate sort of dream. And there'd be Asher, curled up so much they could barely see his face. And then of course there would be Dylan, starfished with his sleeping bag tossed open like it had been forcing him to keep his limbs tucked in and he couldn't have it.

When Nadine had come into their group, and then Maya, and Riley, their sleepovers had meant boys in the basement and girls upstairs, so it really wasn't until, oh… two summers ago, in Europe, where he first got a chance to see Maya this way. Most nights, the two of them did sleep spooned together, or still in one another's arms. Even on those nights where they ended up on their own pillows, their own sides, he would find her sort of curled up the way she would be when he'd hold on to her. Her face would be peaceful, devoid of worry, of sarcasm, of mischief. It would seem to him like in that moment she was exactly what she was in her heart, before anything else. Curiosity, life… love…

On those rare days when he woke up before she did, in the weeks since they'd found out they were going to be parents, he had been taken with the reflex to scoot in for a bit of 'sprout time,' whispering to their growing child, even if it was still about the size of a lemon. They were at her parents' house though, and until that night they were still meant to keep things under wraps, he couldn't take the chance that someone might be up and they'd overhear, when they were so close to having made it. The best he could do then was to reach down and lay his hand over Maya's little belly. He mouthed a silent hello, smiling.

When he heard the cautious creak of the door, he froze a moment before realizing who it would be. Still, he was surprised to find only one of the twins peering through the door. Lifting his head, he saw it was Gracie, looking up from under a dishevelled brown fringe with those blue eyes as shy as her twin's were spritely. Lucas waved her over, and the three-year-old didn't have to be told twice. She scurried over, and Lucas turned to pick her up and carry her into the space between Maya and him.

"Don't wake her, okay?" he whispered, and Gracie nodded, looking to her older sister. "Where's Nellie?" he asked. Gracie pointed to the ceiling. _Upstairs._ "Sleeping?" She nodded. "Not you though?" She just looked to Maya again, and Lucas understood. She missed her, wanted to be with her while she was in town. Lucas smiled. Katy Hart's eldest and youngest daughters had that in common.

After a few seconds, Lucas realized Gracie was staring at something, and he saw how Maya's shirt was still riding up from when he'd set his hand to it, setting that little roundness into view. Gracie was only three, sure, but the way she stared, noting something different about her sister, he had to wonder… Did she understand what it meant? She would have seen her mother's belly growing large the previous year, she would have been told what it meant… Would she be able to put the pieces together?

"Hey… Hey, Gracie?" Lucas whispered, trying at the same time to listen for any signs that the second twin might come seeking anytime soon. The girl turned her head to look at him, and she pointed. _Damn…_ He was trying to think of what to say, but then she looked back down and reached her little fingers to pick up the dangling cord around Maya's pyjama pants.

"Can I tie it? I know laces," she whispered, and Lucas resisted letting out a breath of relief.

"You should wait until she's awake, then you can show her how you do that."

After this minor 'incident,' the day had managed to get started as normally as they could have hoped, with everyone preparing for the day's activities, which would involve the Hunter-Harts heading to the Friar house in mid-afternoon. Lucas had been keeping a casual eye on his girlfriend's preparations as they got ready. The new, more 'bump lining' dress had been carefully packed along with the few presents they would be bringing along to exchange today, with their visiting friends. _They_ would be finding out about the baby, too, and both Maya and Lucas were anxious to see those reactions almost as much as their families'.

"It's about time we get to tell people, I think my mother's finally about to crack," Maya told Lucas as they got in his car. They were travelling on their own because her parents' was already full with things they had to bring, along with the twins and MJ, and also to leave them free to stick around longer if they so chose, when they'd be returning home. That was what she was told at least, and Katy was the picture of convincing, so Maya rolled with it, while Lucas snuck a look of gratitude Katy's way. For that, he also knew that what Maya interpreted as her mother's wanting to burst with the news of their coming baby was in fact her wanting to burst with some other news about to come live…

"So, when _are_ we telling them?" Lucas asked once they were in the car.

They could never seem to make up their minds on how they wanted to do it. It seemed like something easy, just to say the words, but this was about so much more than words, it was the biggest event in their lives as of yet, and it wouldn't just change the two of them, it was their whole families. And there was also… that lingering worry. _What if they got upset?_

Maya had fallen into a deep hole of watching pregnancy reveal compilations, like she was fishing for inspiration. She would show them to him, and Lucas would happily watch along, but at the same time he guessed he did share her concerns, or, more to the point, he was aware of her concerns and he worried about what it could do to her to continue watching all those happy families screaming with surprise and crying and hugging.

Of the variety of plans they'd made, all of them seemed to hold to a similar nature in that it fell somewhere in the middle between something overly showy and something very understated. That way, no matter what happened, no matter how everyone reacted, they would make it clear that they were very happy, and they would be able to feel the room for the rest of it.

"I think… at dinner?" Maya frowned, unsure. He could practically hear her think 'but I don't want to ruin the meal.'

"Dinner sounds good," he nodded confidently. "Then you get to go and put on the new dress for after," he smiled. As he'd hoped, she was unable to think of that new dress again without smiling, too.

"Okay, dinner then," she agreed, letting out a breath.

As they drove on, she was still inevitably drawn to think about the approaching reveal, which worked in his favor in that it took her enough time to realize they weren't coming anywhere near his parents' house. In fact, they were driving up and stopping somewhere familiar, yes, but a good several minutes in the wrong direction from where they were supposed to be. She turned to him, confused.

"Uh, Lucas? I am liking the initiative here, but I'm pretty sure we're a good twelve-ish years early for this. Also, it's Christmas Eve, I think they're closed."

"I know," he laughed. "It's just… being back here the last few days made me think of this place a lot, and I felt like stopping by for a minute, show the sprout where we met. Come on," he got out of the car, walking around to her side to open the door for her. By the time she climbed out to join him, she looked like she'd come around to the idea, which was what he'd been going for. He didn't want her to see it coming, and they'd both sort of been playing around at this 'showing the sprout around' gag, always ignoring the fact that he or she couldn't see a thing at all.

So, with that, they climbed up the steps of the middle school, just up to where they would usually sit, him and her, alone or with their friends.

"It's too quiet like this," Maya declared, looking around as they sat. "No kids anywhere, barely any cars on the street…"

"No Zay and Dylan arguing about who could run the fence the fastest…" he added, making her laugh. "But there's you, up here on this step. Most days that was the first thing I'd see coming up here." She adopted a pose at this, presenting herself something like a statue, a warrior goddess welcoming him to another day of academia. "Hold on," he laughed, taking out his phone and standing up, climbing down a couple steps, the better to get the whole effect captured. The camera clicked a few times, as he moved around for varied angles.

"Let me see," she gestured for the phone when he was done. He handed it over and watched her grin and laugh as she swiped through the different images. "I think this one is my favorite," she decided, returning the phone. He nodded approvingly; it was his favorite, too, straight on, staring right through him with her all-seeing statue eyes. As he put his phone back in his pocket, his fingers grazed the small box and he could feel his heart thudding heavily in his chest. When he looked back to Maya, he could see her drifting into her head again.

"Hey, hey," he came up one step.

"I'm fine," she shook her head. "Really, I am overflowing with confidence here, you know…" she adopted her pose again and he grinned. "It's just… one last deep breath."

He took one of those himself right in that moment, he had to. Without meaning to, obviously, she'd sort of given him cause to stand up and face her as he spoke, and now she'd also enabled him to say the things he needed to say. _One last deep breath…_

"Look, I get that you're scared, I'm right there with you. All we want is for people to be as excited as we are and…" he let out another breath, knowing it wouldn't do either of them good to pretend like this wasn't a possibility. "And maybe some of them will need time to come around to the idea of us having a baby right now instead of a few years down the road. If that's what happens, then we'll deal with it. All that matters is you, me, and the sprout," he told her, coming to sit on the step just below hers, turning around to face her at the same time. "It _is_ happening faster than we anticipated, but that's not the important part here. The important part is that this was always going to happen for us, yeah? That's what we wanted, to spend our lives together, to make a family."

"Yeah," she smiled, letting some of those worries ebb out. He took her hand, a calculated misdirection to keep her from seeing him reach into his pocket again.

"Some things are going to happen differently for us because of this, but we'll get through it, because in the end all we're doing is exactly what we were going to do, just earlier. The house, the baby…" he nodded to each, then, after a beat, he finally brought up the little box for her to see. Her breath caught, and he smiled, knowing he'd pulled off his surprise. "After all that, it wouldn't seem right to keep this locked away. All this time, I've known, _we've_ known, I think… And we've just been waiting, because that was what we figured we were supposed to do. But everything's starting now, Maya, not in two years, three years, so…"

He pulled the box open, showing the engagement ring even as he shifted from being seated on the step to kneeling on it. He was sure the hormones were responsible for some of her tears, but then he was feeling his eyes water, too, so some of those had to be hers alone.

"My grandmother gave it to me shortly before she passed. You never met her, she was my mom's mom, Marianne," he explained. The second ring, the wedding band, was back at the house, still hidden, waiting to be reunited with this one. "She told me that when I met the person who was meant to have it, I would know. I wish… I wish I could tell her how right she was, because I knew… I really did… before I even knew what it was that I knew." She beamed, pointing toward herself in a silent indication that the feeling was mutual, and that just lit his face up that much further. "So, all this to say… Maya, it would be the… best Christmas present to finally hear you answer this question… Will you marry me?"

"What do you think?" she laughed, nodding, almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He laughed back, rising forward to kiss her even as she leaned in to do the same. When they pulled back, he picked the ring from the box, breathing as he slid it on to her finger and it fit. "I'll have to put it on a chain pretty soon, if my fingers start to…" Without a word, he pulled back the setting from the box, showing a golden chain hidden underneath, cushioned with cotton. "Thought of everything, huh?"

"I figured, this way, it won't be all in the open, depending on when we end up telling everyone," he explained as he helped her get the ring on the chain and the chain around her neck.

"Yeah, that's gonna be a one-two punch right there," she realized. Despite all that though, her smile was going strong, looking at him with her eyes still brimmed with those happy tears. "I never actually gave you a proper answer, did I?" she asked, and he smiled. "Yes," she held his gaze, and he kissed her again. "I love you…"

"I love you," he echoed. One more deep breath, as he looked to his g… to his fiancée… Now they really had to go. Their big day was only beginning.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	8. Ring the Bells

_Chapter 8_  
_Ring The Bells_

When they had finally left their old middle school, getting back in his car as they headed to his parents' house, Maya couldn't help but press her fingers over the space where she knew the diamond ring hung from the chain around her neck. She would touch it, and she would think about that moment, him and her on the steps, as he had asked her to marry him. Of course, it had always been in the cards for them, at least it had been for a very long time, and as far as they'd both known it would have remained that way for a couple more years. But then…

Ever since they'd found out about the baby, the thought had been playing at the back of her mind, much as she tried not to. She knew it wouldn't change a thing whether or not they were married when their baby was born, she knew that it wouldn't be a bad thing if they didn't follow what seemed to be expected of people. All that would matter would be that they were happy, and together, with a healthy baby that they would love even more than they already did now. And still, for all that… somewhere deep down she couldn't deny that she wanted it, that she wanted to take that step now more than ever.

So when he had presented her with that ring, it did not even require even a hundredth of a second for her to decide one way or the other. She'd already had one foot up the aisle as it were. Now that ring was around her neck, another secret, but like the bigger one she also kept hidden beneath her clothes, it wouldn't be a secret for much longer. Just a few more hours…

They pulled up to the Friar house to find it already surrounded with cars. Maya and Lucas were both familiar enough with those cars by now to know who had arrived. The Zhus and the Babineaux, the Garcias, the Orlandos, the Matthews, the Zvolenskys and the Fitz, and of course the Hunter Harts…

"They're all here…" Maya breathed.

"You okay?" Lucas smiled, reaching for her hand.

"It's just a few more hours, right?" she looked up at him with a fretful look. He kissed the top of her head and she hummed. "It's fine, we can do this. We've been keeping things hush out here for a week and everything's been good. It's just…"

"I know," he promised, and he did know, of course. It was easier for him to pretend like nothing was going on, when _he_ didn't have a growing belly to hide, but it didn't mean he didn't walk around every day, trying to make a conscious effort not to say what he wasn't supposed to say when every part of him was just excited and wanted to share it with the world.

"We could just get it done now… What's a few more hours at this point."

"Is that the nerves talking or do you really want to do it now?" he asked.

"Honestly, bit of both," she admitted. "Look, I know that you won't say anything because you don't want to sway my choice, and I love that about you, but right now, just… sway away." He chuckled, nodding as he considered the choice.

"Well… It would be easier to tell everyone at dinner, when they're all sitting and they're not all spread out through the house…" he started, and she nodded, with him so far. "But on the other hand, if we told them now, then it would be done, and we could enjoy the party instead of stressing the whole time." She nodded again, agreeing with this as well. "We know as soon as we say it though… It's going to be all anyone will talk about for a while, so maybe…"

"Maybe we go in, say hi to everyone, and _then_ we drop the double load?" she finished for him. He smiled, nodding. "Okay…" she breathed.

"Okay," he echoed, bringing their joined hands up for him to kiss hers. "No matter what happens in there, you know where I stand."

"At my side at every minute?" she looked up to him.

"Yes," he laughed. "But I also meant just that I love you, and I love our sprout."

"Oh, that one, yeah," she smiled, stretching up to kiss him. "Come along, fiancé," she whispered as they shared one more look.

"Yes, ma'am," he grinned, more so for the squint she gave him for that.

Much as the cars outside had prepared them, once they walked through the door to the drone of so many voices talking, people everywhere, kids running around… Lucas felt Maya's hand squeeze his and he squeezed hers back. They had this, they'd be fine.

They were met by a number of the parents before they could actually get around to saying hello to any of their visiting friends. When they finally found some of those, it came in the form of Farkle and Isadora. They were so surprised to find them there, when as far as they knew the two of them were not able to make the trip this year, and they went over to them, hugs offered and accepted. When Maya pulled back after embracing her, Isadora had looked at her for a moment, and her eyes had taken a turn down.

"You…" Isadora started to say, and Maya moved at once to usher her out of the living room and into the nearest room with a door, which ended up being the bathroom. The boys were right behind them and suddenly there they were, four of them in a small bathroom.

"What are we doing in here?" Farkle asked, looking from one from to the other. Maya and Lucas looked to one another, then to Farkle, then to Isadora, then back to each other. Farkle still looked confused, while Isadora was… well, also confused, though for a whole other reason. With a sigh, like their plan, on shaky legs already as it was, had started to disintegrate, Maya looked to the two of them and came out with the truth. The alternative would have been for Isadora to go and possibly beat them to the punch without knowing she wasn't supposed to.

"I'm pregnant," she told them. Isadora smiled, though still with a twinge of a look that said 'well I figured _that_ out,' while Farkle's jaw slackened with surprise, his eyes turning down to look at his old friend as though surely he would have noticed earlier if that was the case. Maya obliged him by flattening her shirt, allowing it to adopt the curve of her body.

"And…" Lucas reminded her.

"And!" Maya nodded, sweeping her finger under her shirt and scooping out the ring. "Soon to be Mrs. Huckleberry at your service," she grinned. "Now, you can't tell anyone," she pointed her finger to one and the other. "We're telling everyone today, so just…"

"Got it," Farkle nodded.

"Won't say a word," Isadora promised. "Although I don't see how they can't tell."

Thankfully, despite Isadora's estimation, no one appeared to spot the change in Maya as they continued to make the rounds, reuniting with their visiting friends as much as with their parents. They were the picture of 'totally normal, nothing to see here,' although, when they had gotten to the point where they had said hello to everyone, when Lucas had given her a look as though to ask if this was the moment or if she'd rather wait a bit more, she knew there was something she needed to do before all that.

"Be right back, don't go far," Maya told him, kissing him quickly before darting off in search of Riley. When she found her, talking with Dylan, Asher, and Ray, the two of them who knew this was The Day, looked at her with a discreet sort of tip of the head, asking without words if she needed them to do something. "Riley, come with me for a minute?"

"Coming," Riley detached herself from the group at once. She followed Maya as they went up the stairs and into Lucas' old room. Maya shut the door, locked it, before moving to her oldest friend with a finger pressed to her lips. _Don't make a sound._ "What…" Riley whispered, freezing at once when Maya pulled out the ring again and showed it to her. She gasped, and Maya planted her hand over her friend's mouth.

"Shh!" she begged, and Riley nodded. Maya carefully removed her hand and, just as soon, was caught up in a giddy hug that made her smile.

"When did you…"

"Earlier today," Maya whispered back. She told Riley about the surprise detour to their old middle school, how she had not seen it coming at all and then suddenly there it had been, and he had been on his knees before her, and she'd said yes… Of course, she'd said yes. Riley looked at the ring now, holding it carefully as it was connected to Maya's neck via the chain.

"When are you…"

"We haven't exactly had the chance to figure that out yet," Maya pointed out, and Riley gave a look to say 'right, of course.' "Well, there is _one_ thing I know right now though, and that's who my maid of honor has to be," she grinned, evolved into a laugh when she saw the excited tears on her friend's face. "More hugs?"

"More hugs," Riley threw her arms around her again.

She hadn't gotten to be the one to tell her directly about her being pregnant; she had absolutely wanted to get to look her best friend of old in the eye when she shared the news of her engagement. As for the rest, well, they had long vowed to be one another's maid of honor. Riley had proclaimed it at least, back when they were kids, while Maya, who could not yet foresee herself even getting married, had agreed on principle. Now, earlier, as she'd touched to that ring on the drive over to the Friar house, she'd remembered those little girls running around and 'playing wedding' with an unsuspecting Farkle, and she'd known she would get to keep her promise.

"When are you going to tell them?" Riley quietly asked as the two of them emerged from the room and started back toward the stairs.

"I was thinking sort of nowish," Maya revealed, releasing a nervous breath.

After spending all this time debating what would be the best way, the best time, they had agreed that it would be today, but even that had not been enough, they needed to figure out when exactly, and that had changed along the way. Now, as they climbed down the stairs and she took in all those people clustered here and there around the Friar house, it all felt like too much at once, at least… too much while most of their parents had no idea what was coming. And as much as she tried not to worry, not to let herself think it could all go wrong, it just didn't feel like she was able to spring it on all of them at once.

"We need to get our parents somewhere together," Maya told Lucas when she found him. She didn't have to explain herself. He just nodded and told her he'd get his parents to the kitchen, and she should get hers and do the same. "Okay… Okay, I can do that, yeah…"

"Hey…" he stopped her as she moved to go.

She turned back to him and he kissed her, holding her face in his hands. They looked at one another and they smiled. Sure, some people knew… several people, really, but on the whole, they were still living with their child as a secret. This would be the last moment before it all changed, and they had to acknowledge it. She gave him a nod, he kissed her forehead, and they were off.

"Dad, hey," Lucas found him in the living room, chatting with Mr. Zhu, Mr. Orlando, and Mr. Garcia. "We're supposed to get the…" he hooked his thumb back toward the kitchen. His father got up with a nod.

Lucas had had plenty of time to consider their plan while Maya had been upstairs with Riley, and he was proud to say that he had more or less predicted Maya's decision to isolate their families ahead of time. Luckily for him, he already had a suspicion-proof idea for how to get his parents there. It was sort of tradition, every year for a good decade. They had to get the 'special' dishes down, and Melinda of course would seek to supervise. They didn't even have to say anything, when she saw the two of them walk off toward the kitchen, it was like she knew, and she detached herself from her own cluster to go and join them.

Meanwhile, Maya was left just a bit frazzled as she wove around in search of her parents. Sure, her mother already knew, and she'd likely understand what was happening as soon as Maya went looking for her, but it still had her heart going like a drum solo. Unlike Lucas, she did not have a ready-made reason to bring them into the kitchen, so, after debating her options in her head, she finally took out her phone and wrote to her mother.

_Maya: Find a reason and bring Dad into the kitchen? It's go time._

_Katy: Be right there._

When she'd spotted her mother as she got up from the couch with her father in tow, both of them heading toward the kitchen, Maya had taken a breath and started making her way there, too… only to very nearly bump head on into someone. Both of them just barely managed to stop and look to see who they'd nearly collided with. It was Pappy Joe.

"Woah! Sorry there, I didn't see you," he reached out, holding her shoulder for a moment. "You okay?" he asked.

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'm fine, are _you_ okay?" she asked, trying not to look she was trying to get away from him, even though she was sort of doing that, wasn't she? All she could think about was the gathering that would be happening in the kitchen without her.

"Oh, don't go worrying about me now. Say, have you seen my son?"

"Your s…" she blinked, like for a second she didn't remember who his son was… _Your sprout's grandfather, dummy, and he's waiting…_ "Kitchen! The kitchen!" she blurted out, feeling very much like she needed to smack herself in the face right about now. "He's… in the kitchen, with Lucas, for the…" she gestured.

"The dishes, right, right," Pappy Joe nodded, looking at her with an amused sort of smirk.

"Here, I'll go with you," she told him, and off they went. No backing out now…

When they arrived in the kitchen, they came upon the scene of Lucas and his father handing the dishes down to Shawn, while Melinda was telling Katy how they had gotten the set for their wedding, and how there'd been a mix up in the delivery, the wrong pattern being sent… Maya had heard the story before, more than once. Right now she feared anyone being near those dishes when they gave their news. What if they dropped one, broke one… or more than one…

"Do you need something, sweetie?" Melinda asked, and Maya blinked.

"No, I, uh, we just sort of bumped into each other," she indicated Pappy Joe. "He was looking for Mr. Friar," she indicated the man, who turned around at the sound of his name.

"Do you know, I forgot what it was now," Pappy Joe told them. Maya looked at him and she swore he gave her a smile like he knew what was about to happen, like he'd orchestrated all this in order to get her nervous self moving to where she needed to be. She looked to Lucas, who had a similar look on his face. "Need a hand with those?" Pappy Joe moved toward his son, while his grandson moved down from the step ladder and over to where Maya stood.

For as much as her creativity had always been one of her strongest traits, in that moment she had nothing, and she was pretty sure if neither of them said a word in the next ten seconds they would miss their moment. Either that, or everyone would be staring at them wondering what they were up to, just standing there. She didn't want to just pull out her phone and play the heartbeat again like she'd done with her mother, she just…

"Is that your new calendar?" she asked Mrs. Friar as she spotted the thing sitting on the counter. As ever, it showed pictures of flowering gardens, all year round, every year. Her calendar for 2023, according to the cover, was all about lilies.

"It is," Melinda confirmed with a smile. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yeah, I love it." And then she had an idea. "Hey, I know that you always take the time to write down all the birthdays in there, did you do it already?" When she was told that she hadn't, Maya swallowed back a breath of relief. "I was thinking… you've got pretty much everyone here whose names you'll put in there, so it could be a fun sort of thing to have them all write their own names in, you know?"

"I like it," Pappy Joe declared at once.

"So do I," Katy smiled.

"Yeah, what do you say, Mom?" Lucas asked. Melinda looked to the calendar, then back to her son's girlfriend, and then she smiled.

"Sure, that sounds lovely. What a wonderful idea, Maya."

"Here, I'll start?" Lucas asked, checking with his mother, who gave a nod. He found a pen, turning the pages to the month of May. In the square for his birthday, he wrote down his name, before passing both items on to his father, who flipped through to October and did the same. From there, the calendar was passed to Pappy Joe, and Katy, and Shawn, and Melinda, before it finally landed in Maya's hands.

"Right," she opened the calendar on to the month of January and entered her name. When she was done, she held a moment before turning the pages again. February, March, April, May, and then June…

When she bent over the page again and started to write something, the others wondered what she was doing. Finally, she'd set the pen down and taken a step back to land at Lucas' side again, trying to appear the picture of calm as she watched them all sort of lean in to see what she'd scribbled in the square for June 11th. She reached for Lucas' hand behind their backs. _He _ensured that his phone, discreetly planted while everyone was signing, was aimed and recording.

_Maya's due date_

Later, when they would get the chance to replay the scene via Lucas' video, they would be able to pinpoint everyone's reactions as they happened. In the moment itself, it was all a jumble, as it was something of a photo finish to know just who had figured it out when, which made it difficult to see that lightbulb moment for each of them. It was made eternally more difficult as they'd been distracted at once by the sound of Melinda Friar's outcry.

"What? _What?_ Due…" she looked back to her son and his girlfriend, and it took no time at all to know where she stood. Grandma number two was a lock. Before they knew it, she had them both wrapped in her arms and she was laughing and crying, to the point where some people poked their heads in to see what was happening in the kitchen. When she pulled back to look at them, she found a pair of stunned but tearfully happy faces staring back. "Are you really?" she asked, looking from one to the other.

"Y-yeah, three months," Maya managed to say, and then there were more hugs, more cheers. It took a little while longer before she was able to pull herself away, allowing the others to get their turn coming forward. The next face Maya saw was her own mother's, and she doubted anyone would realize that day that Katy had already known. She was crying anyway as she hugged her daughter and was hugged back, and as she moved and did the same with Lucas.

"I had a feeling, I tell you, I had a feeling," Pappy Joe stepped up after that, clapping his grandson on the shoulder before pulling Maya in a giant hug which made her laugh. She was growing just a bit overwhelmed with happiness for each of these encounters, as they peeled back layer upon layer of her worries. When Pappy Joe had stepped aside, he was followed by his son, who was now looking to _his_ son, realizing now that his baby boy was about to become a father himself.

Lucas had been anxious to know how his parents would react as much as Maya did, and now even deep down, he had known his mother would respond in just the way she'd done. Even now she was unable to stand still, or remain silent, as she processed the news. The one he'd wondered about, even as all he hoped for was a look of pride, of happiness, because _he_ certainly was both of those things, proud of the little life growing in Maya's belly. One look at his father as he came forward and Lucas knew he would get what he had wanted. When he had looked down at the calendar and seen those three words, he'd been left to stand there a little dumbstruck as his wife had gone jumping for hugs. And then his face had split into the silliest little smile, the kind they would never have expected from him and at the same time completely fit to his face. He still had it now as he hugged his son.

"You will do great, I know you will," he spoke quietly at his ear, and Lucas gave a short nod, mistrusting his ability to speak as his father released him and turned to Maya. There was such a light to his face, like he was already envisioning a tiny human calling him Pappy Tom. "Is this why you've been going around like a deer in headlights all day?"

"Little bit," she had to admit. He laughed, hugging her. "Well, that stops now. How are you feeling, everything good?"

"Yeah… yes," she confirmed, reaching to wipe a few more tears from her face. When she looked up again, there stood her father in front of her.

From the video, they would see how he hadn't even managed to really get a good look at the calendar before Melinda Friar's immediate and loud reaction, which left him momentarily confused as to what was happening, but then when Lucas' mother had gone and hugged her son and Maya both, he'd looked to Katy, who was just wordlessly beaming, before pulling the calendar around and finally getting a good look. When he'd put the pieces together, his eyes had gone wide, and he'd just sort of stood there for a moment, looked down at the calendar again to make sure… His hand had gone to his mouth from the surprise, and then he'd just stood there, watching as the procession of hugs had been getting their turns. Finally, there was no one left but him, it was his turn…

Maya felt for a moment like the whirlwind had been forced to come to a stop, brought up to the final hurdle. All she wanted was for him to be happy, too, this man who'd come into their lives seven years ago almost to the day and against all hopes or expectations had become the father she had always wanted and needed, even as she and her mother had become the family he had wanted and needed all the same. They may not have been related by blood, but they were related by everything else that mattered, and as he stood there in front of her, overwhelmed with emotion, as he reached out and set his hands to her shoulders, to her face, as he gave a tremulous smile, she gave one in return, feeling the last of her worries expire. Her father wrapped his arms around her, and all was well.

For a little while after that, no one seemed to remember or care that there was a party happening out in the rest of the house, the real party was in the kitchen. Immediately, the gathered mass of future grandparents – and great grandparent – was in need of details. All they knew so far was that this first grandbaby of theirs was due in mid June.

"I've always wanted a little Junebug…" Melinda Friar had sighed, causing Maya and Lucas to share a look and bite back a laugh.

So, they told their story, recounting the night of Halloween, with all those tests. Lucas was informed _his_ existence had been heralded on a trio of tests. They told their parents about their early adventures with morning sickness and how prompt their sprout had been on that. They showed the latest pictures, and Maya felt one hand after another over her little bump, as everyone wanted their turn. Some of them, to no surprise, came back for seconds and thirds.

They weren't about to go into the subject of school, and moving back to Austin. They did however reveal the fact that they were now engaged, as Melinda Friar's second pass at feeling for Maya's belly had managed to dislodge the chain from under her shirt. Lucas' mother had recognized her own mother's engagement ring at once, and this had been the start of another round of hugs.

By the time they had left the kitchen, Maya and Lucas felt like they had just climbed off a rollercoaster. They couldn't stop smiling and their heads were spinning in a good way. Maya had turned into his arms, and Lucas kept her near.

"That all really happened, yeah?" she asked.

"Got it all on video," he promised. "What do you want to do now?" There really was only one thing she really wanted to do right now.

"Where's my bag?"

When Maya reappeared a few minutes later, the change of clothes was the first thing people would notice. It was only as their eyes would travel down and land on the now evident bump that they would start putting two and two together.

"Maya?" Nadine came scurrying toward her, looking down and up a couple of times.

"Surprise," Maya gave a bit of jazz hands even as she did her best to bite back a laugh over the look of absolute shock on her friend's face.

"Come here…" Nadine breathed before hugging her. "And you!" she turned to Lucas after this and he grinned as she hugged him, too.

"Forgot to mention something, didn't you?" Zay pointed at her when he got to Maya next.

"Yeah, well, you're way out there in Boston, what can we do?" Maya smiled.

"Oh, now, I definitely have to come over some more, Lucas there he's like the brother I never had, so you know what that means…"

"Hurray for Uncle Zay?" Maya guessed.

"Spoiled rotten," Zay grinned before hugging her.

"You knew, didn't you?" Lucas asked Asher when he came around. Both he and Ray shrugged. "Come on, the other day when we were talking on Skype, you kept trying to get her to stand up and go grab stuff, admit it."

"He owes me a twenty now," Asher tipped his head to his boyfriend, who was now hugging Maya and laying a hand to her belly, much as the rest of them had done.

With the news about the baby now officially in the open, the one about the engagement wasn't far behind. As was to be expected, the whole subject buzzed about the Friar house all through the party, the dinner… Thankfully, what was shaping up to be a deluge of questions, some easier to answer and others just plain awkward, was soon barred from advancing thanks to one or another of the future grandparents, none more than Shawn. Maya would smile whenever he'd do his part.

Finally, the party had ended, and Maya and Lucas followed the Hunter Hart car back to their house. Maya was already halfway asleep in her seat and had to be nudged to get up and get into the house, where she sat on the edge of the bed and lay back with a sigh of relief.

"Is it just me or was that day really long?" she hummed. Feeling something at her feet, she turned her head to find Lucas in the midst of taking off her shoes for her. "Thanks… Can you help with the rest, too?"

She had never been quite so happy to be wearing pyjamas again, especially now that they weren't hiding anymore. Hiding her belly in pyjamas had been a nightmare, to the point where she almost slept in her robe, just in case. But now that was all in the past, and she was so happy she kept on running her hand up and down the curve.

"That was so much belly touching today. I can see why it gets to be too much after a while," she breathed. He gave her a look and she laughed. "You're still allowed, don't worry."

A couple minutes later, Katy popped her head into the room, letting the two of them know that 'some people' had woken up on the ride home and were now demanding a story from their favorite big sister. Somehow, they had learned that adding the word 'favorite' before people's name could get them something special. They hadn't quite grasped the concept that there needed to be more than one just yet, though coming from a couple of toddlers it was hard to say no either way.

When they arrived up in the twins' room, the girls were both in their respective beds, like they were trying to be extra good. One smirk from Maya though and Nellie scampered out of her bed and into Gracie's, the small sisters never so at ease as when they could sleep side by side.

"So, what are we doing this time? A book story?" Maya asked.

"Is it true you have a baby in your tummy?" Nellie asked her own question instead of answering. Maya looked to the two pairs of inquisitive eyes locked on her, stealing a glance to Lucas, who shrugged. He hadn't told them a thing.

"Where did you hear that?" Maya asked.

"Before," Gracie replied, which they took to mean 'at the party.' "Uncle Cory and Aunt Topy said you had a baby in there," she pointed.

"Well… yeah," Maya smiled. Her sisters stared at her, like they couldn't conjure up the image that there could be anything in there, especially a baby.

"It's still small, about this big," Lucas came to sit with them. He cupped his hands together about the size of their unborn child. Nellie and Gracie's eyes went wide. This made much more sense. "It'll keep growing, and growing, and then it'll be ready this summer." Maya gave an approving nod for the word 'ready,' instead of anything that would lead the twins to inquire as to how it would get from inside her to out into the world. This was so not the time for that kind of conversation.

"And you two get to be his or her aunts," she revealed instead, and this made them very happy. "Alright, let's get you guys to sleep. If you're still awake, Santa won't come."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	9. In This House

_Chapter 9_  
_In This House_

If not for the fact that all the stores were closed for the holidays, Lucas well suspected his mother would have found a way to garnish their Christmas tree with a sudden influx of presents for Maya and him, and for her Junebug grandchild. As predicted, it had not taken long before she had adopted the nickname, now that she knew when it was due to be born. Then again, never let it be said that Melinda Friar did not have her ways.

Before they could discover all this, of course, Maya and Lucas had spent Christmas morning at the Hunter Hart house, with Maya's parents and her young siblings. It was MJ's second Christmas, technically, but he had been all of two weeks old for the first one, so the extent of his involvement with that day had been to sleep, mostly, and then holler until his diaper might be changed. This year, just a little over a year old, he was more involved, to some point, but it mostly required for someone to make faces at him and speak in cheerful tones, and then he'd respond in kind.

The highlight of the morning, without contest, involved Nellie and Gracie. They had long discovered how amusing it could be, when there were presents to open – whether they were theirs or someone else's – to then take the colorful bows and stick them in other places. Last Christmas, they had giggled as the bows were stuck further and further up their father's arms, the crowning glory going atop his head, until he looked like a giant Christmas tree. This year, hot on the news that they were to be aunts because there was a baby inside their big sister's belly, Gracie had been the first to snatch up a bow and get up from the ground to go and stick it right there over the swell showing through Maya's shirt. Never to be left far behind, Nellie had gone next and done the same.

By the time all the presents were open, there was a veritable field of bows stuck over Maya's shirt, and she looked like she never waited any of them to be removed.

Finally, after lunch, it had been time to pack up and transfer themselves over to the Friar house for the remainder of their stay in Austin. This was never an easy thing to do, as it involved seeing Maya's sisters grow emotional because they didn't want her to go, but now it made _her_ emotional, too, and the next thing they knew, they were packing up a couple more bags, taking Nellie and Gracie to stay at the Friar house with them. Katy and Shawn had found it near impossible to deny their eldest, while Lucas' parents had been all for welcoming the twins into the house, so that was that.

When they had arrived at the Friar house, Lucas' father had come out to help with the bags, while the three sisters went up, one twin holding each of Maya's hands. Just inside the door, they had been greeted by an ever cheerful Melinda, who first helped ridding Nellie and Gracie of coats, and boots, and other winter accessories, before pulling her future daughter-in-law into a hug, asking how she was doing as though she hadn't seen her in weeks when she had seen her not twenty-four hours ago.

"You should have seen her," Maya told Lucas, an hour later, when they finally managed to go up to his room to start settling in. "It was like her circuits got crossed between Hostess Mode and Grandma Mode. She wanted to take me straight to the tree, but she couldn't because _manners_," she gestured. He smirked. He could picture it very well.

She had dug up just about everything they still had in the house that might be of some use to the future parents, including books she'd read when she was pregnant herself. They were just over two decades old, but she swore by them. As Maya had told Lucas before, she was all for taking whatever Melinda had to offer her, so she accepted these with sincere thanks. Her favorite discovery might not have been the content of the books, which was more or less everything she already had with the books they had gotten for themselves.

"Look," she'd shown Lucas, opening one of the books. There were notes in the margins, passages underlined and highlighted, the writing all in his mother's neat handwriting. Some were questions, things she meant to look up, sometimes with an answer scribbled underneath. On the right hand side of the page though, near the top, were a series of names.

_For a girl:_

_Marianne_

_Eleanor_

_Catherine_

_For a boy:_

_Thomas Jr._

_Simon_

_Lucas_

Seeing the circle around his own name, he had smiled, though at the same time he was sort of curious, seeing all those other options, how he'd almost been named after his father, where in the end it had been relegated to an all too rhyming middle name. And the girl names… To his knowledge, his parents had not wanted to know what they were having, so he wondered if they _had_ found out at some point, or if his mother had gone back through her book and marked their choice after he'd been born. Either way, this small evidence of the thought which had gone into his naming left him with a small leap in his heart. Soon, it would be him and Maya who'd have to make a choice, for their own child. He or she couldn't be Sprout forever.

Along with the books, Melinda Friar had gifted Maya with bundles and bundles of yarn, now that she knew that she'd taken up knitting. Maya didn't know where she'd gotten it all, and the patterns, too, as to her knowledge Lucas' mother did not knit herself, but she did not doubt the woman's methods in getting what she needed, holidays or not.

The last gift had nearly sent Maya's knees wobbling right out from under her, when she'd opened the envelope and seen the amount written on the check inside. She'd tried to say it was too much, that they couldn't accept it, but Melinda wouldn't have it. This was theirs to use, to furnish their home with the things they would need once the baby was born. There was an unspoken addition to this statement, where her future mother-in-law seemed to want to know what she and Lucas planned to do about that. They hadn't gotten around to telling her or Mr. Friar any of their plans, no one. Only Katy knew, and there only really that they planned to move back to Austin after the end of the coming semester.

"I didn't want to jump into all that, especially when it was just me, so I sort of thanked her and found a way to dodge the question for now, I mean…" Maya showed the check, and Lucas' eyes did what she guessed her own had done when she'd first seen it, too.

"Woah…"

"I know," she nodded, looking around like she really needed to find a safe place to store it until they could figure out what to do about it. When she found it, she sat back on the bed, breathing deep. "We should go and check out the house this week."

"Yeah," he agreed, sitting with her.

"Just us though. Don't want this to turn into a thing," she specified and he smiled. His mother would definitely make it into a thing, his father and grandfather, too, probably. "And…" she started after a beat, pausing a moment as she reached for the chained ring, which had slipped to sit at her throat when she'd laid down on the bed. "We should probably talk about this, too," she smiled now, like he did.

"I was hoping we would," he leaned back on his side, head in his hand as he looked at her.

"We need to decide _when_, what with… all this…" she set her hand to her belly and then lifted it a few inches to indicate growth. "Do we do it before I get too big, or do we wait until after…" He considered this for a moment, but really what it came down to was that it wasn't entirely up to him, that it really mostly depended on what she wanted, what she felt.

"I will marry you… whenever, wherever, however…" he vowed, which made her chuckle.

"That's sweet, but let's not wait _too_ long."

"Fair," he agreed.

"I just… It may only come as fifty-fifty of a surprise, but I _have_ considered what our wedding would look like before." At this, he sat up again, cross-legged, back raised, attentive. She laughed. "You're marrying an artist, it can't be helped. The point is… just because we're kind of on a ticking clock with the baby coming, it doesn't mean I will take any shortcuts about this. I want the whole thing, you know?"

"The whole thing sounds good."

"_So_," she nodded, "It will take some time to plan everything, especially seeing as both of us will be in school full time, and working, and I'll have the band, and Professor Robinson…"

"And I…" he cut in, as a thought came to him, "I'll have the clinic." She blinked, not knowing what this meant. So, he told her how his aunt Tanya had offered to take him on to work at her clinic a few times over the week, starting in January. He had hesitated to take it at first, especially seeing as they would be leaving Houston in half a year's time. But then his aunt didn't know about the baby or any of that at the time, and he couldn't refuse the opportunity, so he'd said yes.

"Lucas, that's great…" Maya sat up, grinning.

"It'll only be until we move back here," he shrugged, but she wouldn't have it. She took his hands, gave them a squeeze until he looked at her.

"That's great," she repeated, and finally he smiled, nodded.

"Yeah, it is," he agreed. "So… all of that, and then the wedding…"

"All of that… So, if we want the wedding we were going to have…" she started again.

"We do, and we will," he vowed, making her smile again.

"Then with everything else, I think it'll just have to be… over the summer, or later, I… It'll be after this one's born," she nodded down to herself. "Which might not be a bad thing, I mean… Big day for all of us, yeah?" He agreed. "Plus," she added, holding a brief pause, "It'll spare me having to look at maternity wedding dresses, even if I would have nailed the stink eye at anyone giving me looks like they didn't approve."

"They wouldn't stand a chance," Lucas confirmed. She replied by mouthing what he was sure to be the words 'not a chance.' "So… summer… July? August?"

"If we're going for after baby, then it'd probably be a good idea to give us time to get a handle on things, _and _for me to… well… regain my figure… just a bit," she explained with a shy smile that made him lean forward and kiss her. "You know, even when you don't say the words, I _know_ you thought something in your head like 'you're always perfect to me,'" she intoned in that voice of hers, the one she'd pull out to imitate him, exaggerating his tone.

"Your powers are great," he bowed his head, then raised it again a few seconds later, looking at her with a smile.

"What?" she asked, instantly curious. "What?" she nudged him to speak.

"Well, if we're going to wait, and we want to plan it right, and you want to have time, then I think I have it." He got up from the bed, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, tracing in _11 01._ She beamed at once, seeing their anniversary date.

"You had to write down November 1st, you couldn't just tell me?" she inquired.

"You're not the only one who can be creative, you know?" Lucas pointed out, and she raised her eyebrow, amused. So, he used his pen to explain it. "You and me," he pointed to the 1 and 1 that made November, before pointing to the 0 and the last 1, "And in the belly… well, out of the belly… the sprout."

"If my powers are great, yours are just weird… and amazing," she laughed, dropping back to the mattress with a hum. "November 1st… It's already one of my favorite days out of the year… And it's when you and I started, so… It can be a start again, for the next part, and… Wait, what day of the week is it, the coming year…" They couldn't well get married in the middle of the week, could they? Not if they wanted all their people there…

Lucas pulled out his phone and checked, only to frown and reveal that it was a Wednesday.

"Oh, yeah, that won't be complicated at all…" Maya sighed, suddenly bummed out at the loss of their perfect date. Lucas kept looking at his calendar, shifting the view to the whole year, to get a better idea. After a few seconds, he nodded to himself.

"September 3rd," he offered. She turned her head to look at him. "Third day, ninth month… three by three is nine, three of us… And it's a Sunday." Her smile returned. "Weird and amazing?" he guessed.

"Definitely," she reached for his hand so he'd lie down with her and she could hold him closer. "September 3rd…" she repeated, letting it become something more, a date of new importance. Their baby would be nearly three months old by then, which was wild to think about… and they would get married.

They waited to reveal the date that evening, as Maya's family was coming over for Christmas dinner already. They hadn't planned on going into the whole move back to Austin situation, but then as soon as the date had become a thing a conversation had started about venues, and other necessary services, and it became clear that their families – save for Katy Hart – assumed all this would be happening in Houston still. All of a sudden, they had to clarify.

"We're getting married here, in Austin," Lucas told them.

"Because we'll be living back here by then," Maya added.

This revelation was met with some surprise, although on the whole it was clear to both Lucas and Maya that what their parents truly felt was relief, knowing their son and daughter would be much closer when the baby was born. Once that relief had been processed, of course, they had to remind themselves of the further implications. What was the plan, was there a plan? Maya and Lucas looked to one another. This was exactly what they had expected, wasn't it? But then they'd had a few conversations already, specifically so they'd have at least _something_ to tell them in response.

So, they told their families what they could tell them… so far. They were going to stay in Houston until the end of the following semester, finishing out their second year. After this, they would relocate back to Austin, where they would move into Pappy Joe's old house, which had been handed over to Lucas the day of his high school graduation. After that, Maya would take the following year to look after the baby, after which she would look for a job, and she would enroll back in school, only out here. In the meantime, Lucas would be transferring for the coming fall's semester, continuing on with his studies, while also finding a job, more likely two.

The way their parents looked at them, once they'd shared this much, it felt like they were impressed at least that they'd given it this much thought, but also they were realizing what this would mean for them in the long run, having to start over. Even if they were returning to their hometown, where they knew plenty of people, where their families were, it would still be a big deal for them, and it would be sacrifices and hard work. Neither Lucas nor Maya seemed in any way daunted by this, they looked ready, determined, because of course they were. For their baby, their sprout, there wasn't even a second thought.

"We… we need to be here, to raise the baby here, with you guys," Maya finally explained, the motivation settling over their parents with smiles. "So, that's what we're going to do."

There was no attempt made whatsoever to ever try and settle the twins in the guest room, knowing that they wouldn't do well with an unfamiliar space, so Nellie and Gracie settled in between Maya and Lucas as they went to sleep that night, and every night that they would stay with them at the Friar house. It was hardly the first time they'd slept with a small child or two between them in the last couple of years, but it truly felt like something new all of a sudden, with the baby growing, Maya's body changing along with it… With Nellie snug in her arms, Maya just couldn't stop thinking about a time, half a year away, where she would hold a sleeping child that was her own. She would look to Lucas, who had Gracie in much the same way, and she'd know he felt it, too. The anticipation, the long wait for the sprout.

The next few days got to show them both more of what they had both anticipated, now that their parents all knew about the pregnancy. There had been a lot of talk about what she had or hadn't been eating, what she had or hadn't been doing, and through it all Maya had been much more open than resistant to the questions. She was confident in what she had been doing, and she would change if she believed she should, but all the same she wouldn't let herself get pushed into doing something she wasn't confident about. So long as she held her ground, she knew, all would be well.

"Admit it, you're starting to feel anxious about going back to Houston," Lucas told her, the morning they drove off to look at the house. Maya seemed intent not to look at him, which told him all he needed to know.

"You know I love them all, your mom, your dad, Pappy Joe, but I think it's possible I'll love them a little more when we're not under the same roof from morning to night with one or the other asking me about one thing or another at every turn." Lucas bit back a laugh.

As they neared the house, taking familiar turns Lucas had known for as long as he'd lived, it felt very strange, he had to admit, to think that they were now going to be driving down here to go to the place they would soon call home, that, in years to come, their son or daughter would become familiar with these same roads.

"When's the last time you came here?" Maya asked, as they could see the house up ahead.

"I haven't been here since we moved to Houston, I think. Not sure anyone's been out here either, except maybe my dad."

"So… it's all just been sitting here for two years and some, out of use?" Maya looked at him, and he understood what she meant. As they pulled up and got out of the car, they approached the house and found it looking more or less as it would, after all this time. From the exterior they could already see a serious need for a lawnmower, clippers, whatever it would take to make it look a bit less… out in the woods to go see your granny until suddenly a wolf appeared. It was winter now, and there was a light dusting of snow, but on the whole the place looked wild.

The structure was sound, no doubt to it, strong even, but in need of a whole lot of tending. Maya had been here before, many times, back in the day, she still remembered what it could look like, which was a good thing. Now she also had to look through both the memory and the current state, to find within all this what the home would look like once it would be hers, and her future husband's, and their unborn child.

When Lucas had unlocked the door and led her in, the need became even more of a challenge.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I love me a good haunted house, but at the end of the day…" Maya breathed, immediately receding into sneezes as she got dust for her troubles.

"You okay?" Lucas asked as she pulled the collar of her shirt up over her nose and mouth to ensure it wouldn't happen again. She held up her thumb. Covering up just as she'd done, Lucas looked around.

He remembered being here when they'd seen to 'closing' the house, knowing no one would be here for a while, remembered putting up a lot of the covers over various pieces of furniture himself. Somehow though, after all this time, it looked a lot different, like they were surrounded by so many bedsheet ghosts.

"Maybe we shouldn't move any of those right now," he turned back to Maya, finding she had moved to look at a picture on the wall. The glass was a bit dusty, but as he joined her he only had to get one short glimpse to know what she'd be looking at. Six-year-old Lucas sat up on a horse, a man stood nearby. Even with his back turned, there was no mistaking Pappy Joe.

"I don't care what we do to this place, this stays right here," she turned back to him, a smile in her eyes even as the rest of her face remained hidden.

"Sounds good," he agreed.

They walked through the rest of the house, bit by bit, finding much of that same disuse. Lucas found himself absently cataloguing the things they'd need to do, the things they'd need to replace… Some things were in need of replacement long before Pappy Joe had moved in with them.

As they progressed up the stairs, they came upon the master bedroom, what had once been his grandparents' room up until his grandmother had passed. After that, his grandfather had just moved into what had once been a guest room, so the master looked like even more of a museum, of a time even more remote. Still, it had been tended to for a long time, that much was clear.

"He won't mind if we use it?" Maya had to ask.

"I think he'd insist we do," Lucas told her.

There were three bedrooms in total, all of them sizable, and Maya surprised herself, thinking immediately of a time some years down the road where they might have more children to occupy the space, when the first was still so small inside her, just about fourteen weeks…

When they finally walked back outside, a deep gulp of fresh air felt about as good as they could expect it to. For a while they stood together, looking up at the house.

"Once the dust and cobwebs are gone, it'll be easier to really know what we have to do," Maya nodded.

"I'll take care of that," Lucas told her. "You've got that museum thing with Professor Robinson, day after tomorrow, I can get a few of the others and we'll come back." There was no point arguing that she'd want to help, on this part at least she was plenty at ease to sit out.

"And once that's done?" she asked.

"We'll see. We've got a few months left, we can work through it, bit by bit, room by room, yeah?" he looked down to her and she nodded for a few seconds in silence before speaking.

"Yeah," she smiled. She could almost see it now, if she looked hard, opened her mind's eye… This would be their home. They were fortunate, she could recognize that much. This house had more or less been handed to them, dropped in their laps without having to pay a thing, and they would make good use of it.

The next day had seen a visit from the Hillards of Houston, all of them forced to do their best not to disrupt too much of the cleaning done by the Friars in anticipation of Professor Robinson's visit the next day, which had shifted from a simple pick up to a night spent up in the guest room. Maya had been exempted from assisting in this cleaning, on Melinda's orders, though she'd still found a way to help in ways that would not set off 'Nanny Melly's' alarms of exertion.

"She knows I'm still working and going to school and all that, right?" Maya had asked Pappy Joe as the two of them sat at the kitchen table shelling peas for dinner.

"I wouldn't let her hear you say that if I were you," Pappy Joe chuckled. "She might not let you go back to Houston at the end of the week," he told her, nudging a couple of peas to Nellie and Gracie, sitting across from him. The twins smiled, reaching their small fingers over and rolling the peas back and forth along the surface of the table. When Nellie's pea rolled right off the edge, she gasped and hopped off her chair to retrieve it. "Easy now," Pappy Joe leaned forward to look under the table. "I know one little boy a long time ago who bumped his head so many times under there it's a wonder he still doesn't see birds flying around his head." Maya bit back a laugh at that.

Once Nellie had returned topside without incident, she had been made to swear not to eat the thing, even though privately both Maya and Joe both trusted in Melinda Friar's clean floors as being flawless.

"So, tell me about this professor of yours. She's your favorite?" Pappy Joe asked as the shelling resumed.

"Don't go saying that anywhere near Mr. Matthews, he'll probably try and go teach over there just to make sure he holds the title," Maya shook her head, making the man laugh. "But yeah, she's just… She's got that whole 'I would listen to her read the phone book to me' thing going, you know?"

"I've met one or two of those," he nodded.

"She's friends with this old teacher, he taught both my dad and Riley's parents from the time they were kids up through college."

"That long, yeah?" Pappy Joe laughed in surprise.

"Why do you think I still expect Matthews to just show up?" Maya nodded.

When the Hillards had come over, it had been their turn to learn of Lucas and Maya's impending parentage, most of them at least. It hadn't been hard to figure out that Joseph somehow knew already, which in turn narrowed down the choices as to how he'd come by the information. Rosa had been the one to tell him. She hadn't planned to, and in fact she'd been very angry with herself for accidentally telling him, making him swear on the spot that he wouldn't tell a soul.

They had offered to bring Rosa along with them to Austin a few weeks back, when they'd learned her mother would be out of Houston for a while over the holidays. She'd accepted at first, but then just as soon had backed out, pointing out that it would be a pretty busy couple of weeks for them, and she would only be in the way. So, she had taken up her mother's initial option and gone to stay with Pete from the bookstore, spending the holidays with him and his family until her mother would return. She had however spent Christmas with the Hillards, where the big accidental reveal had occurred.

"So, what's the plan for tomorrow?" Maya asked later that night, after their guests had gone on their way. The twins already slept at the heart of the bed, waiting for their 'side people' to join them.

"We're going to the house and clearing out the dusts and…" Lucas started to say, like he figured she already knew. Maya shook her head, stopping him.

"No, I know that part, I meant more after, when you all walk back out of there like so many giant dust bunnies, and then you want to just come back here, in all your dusty glory, in the house that you all worked so hard to clean and wouldn't let me help, while Professor Robinson is still here?" He blinked.

"Right…" he breathed. "Good catch." She grinned. "Well… We'll have to go and shower at one of the others' houses before I come back here."

"Good plan," she nodded. "Now, the night after tomorrow…"

"New Year's Eve," he smiled.

"I want to spend it there," Maya told him. "At the house, just you and… us," she gestured to herself. "I want us to start the year there."

The thought of this just filled him with the glow of such a smile. He couldn't help it. He was ready for their future, and anytime he was given cause to celebrate it… The end of this year and the start of the next would mark such a transition for the two of them, how could he not want to spend it just as she did.

"Our own private eve," he moved over to her, wrapping his arms around her. "If they still do it, there was this one guy not too far from Pappy Joe's house who'd send up fireworks every New Year's Eve. All we had to do was sit on the porch and watch."

"Even better," Maya beamed, her plan already vastly improved, as he leaned in to kiss her.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	10. The Turn of the Year

_Chapter 10_  
_The Turn of the Year_

Maya woke up the next morning, as she would tell Lucas when _he_ woke, like she now had some butterflies in her stomach to keep the sprout company. She was excited about going to the museum event with Professor Robinson, to be sure, but at the same time… She was going to have to tell her about her decision to move back to Austin. Sooner or later, especially with her spending the night here, the news might slip out, and she really wanted to speak to her professor and mentor instead of having her find out from someone else. Much as the decision had been made, and it was the right decision, she still dreaded having make it properly official with her.

"Where are you going?" Nellie asked, as she and Gracie sat up on the bed and watched her get ready after they'd all had breakfast downstairs. Maya was somewhere between amused and surprised that her little sister had rightly interpreted this as more than just getting dressed for the day.

"I am going to the museum with one of my teachers," she told her sisters. They gasped, and she could just see the question forming in their eyes. They wanted to come, too. Maya had been taking her sisters to museums for as long as they could probably remember. They were so well behaved in there, it stunned most people at every one they visited, like they were just used to seeing kids running around or looking bored and anxious to leave. Nellie and Gracie, instead, tended to emulate their big sister, and when she would tell them things, or when Lucas would do it, too, they would look up at them and at whatever piece of art they were pointing to, and they would listen. Whether they retained much of what they were told remained debatable, but they would have a great time, and that was what counted. Despite all of this, of course, she couldn't bring them along today, so she had to act quickly. "I'm afraid it's only for grown up people. But when I get back, I promise I will tell you about everything, yeah?"

"Okay," Gracie replied, looking a bit sad about not getting to go but also happy at the prospect of a story. Nellie nodded, giving much the same look.

Maya's new dress was once again called up for the day. She'd had the opportunity to go and shop for a second one in the last few days, but she'd decided to just keep this one for now. Whether or not this was due to her attempting not to end up in a maternity store with Melinda Friar, well… Still, as she tugged the dress into place and watched it settle to her form, a new thought occurred to her. The wedding, specifically the wedding dress… Years of sitting alongside her mother on those marathons of Say Yes to the Dress had taught her despite herself that it would be best to buy the dress months in advance, the better to allow for any alterations necessary.

"Try and alter that…" she muttered to herself, turning sideways to look at her little bump, imagining what that would look like in a few months' time. The more she thought about it, she knew she at least wanted to buy the dress before she changed too much… And by the time they'd be gearing up for the wedding they would be back here, so it made sense to go to a store in Austin to buy the dress… And since they were already here… Oh… She was going to be walking right into that one, wouldn't she?

After she'd finished getting ready for the museum, Maya had gone back down the stairs, her sisters trailing behind her, much more agile at climbing their way down as they'd once been. The whole place felt a bit like the calm before the storm, except in this case it was more like the hold before the arrival. Mr. Friar was reading the paper in the living room, Pappy Joe was watching some football replay… Lucas was in the kitchen, recruited by his mother to help down a few dishes again. When Melinda saw her come in, she got that jolted smile about her, as though she was being reminded every time that the girl standing before her was now carrying her grandchild. Before she could say anything – or before any nerves could silence her – Maya addressed her future mother-in-law.

"I'm going to go shop for a dress on Monday. _That_ dress… I'd like it if you were there, with me and my mom and the girls," she spoke evenly, ending with a smile. Lucas, up on his step ladder, almost looked jealous that he wasn't being invited. Mostly, he looked like he already envisioned this being a hectic adventure. Melinda Friar though… Oh, she was thrilled, and she accepted the invitation at once, finding herself here again divided between knowing she was to receive a guest while also wanting desperately to begin doing some research, the better to assist the bride to be.

When the doorbell rang, Lucas' mother genuinely flinched, like she'd forgotten herself, before hurrying toward the door, slowing as she approached it. Lucas came down from his step and moved to Maya, one brief moment left to them before she had to go.

"If you keep this up, she's going to love you more than me," he teased, making her grin.

"Hey, I don't make the rules, man, I just play the game," she shook her head. He barely managed to kiss her before they were summoned to greet their guest.

As they left the kitchen and came down the hall, they found everyone standing there, Patty Robinson crouched before the twins. Nellie was a social butterfly as ever, but even shy Gracie couldn't resist the charm of the older woman with the grandmotherly powers. Pappy Joe soon extended a hand to help her stand again, and looking at the two of them as they started to talk, there was a distinct impression left for the rest of them to see, the impression being that the rest of them could have been gone for how little Lucas' grandfather and Maya's professor seemed in any way aware of everyone else in the room.

"What is happening?" Maya whispered.

"No idea…" Lucas whispered back. Neither of them seemed sure whether they meant to be shocked or amused. They pulled it back in as the professor finally looked up and saw the two of them.

"Here you are, hello, hello, oh… look at you…" she approached, making an expected beeline for her student, her roundness now defined as it was. She gave the slightest gesture as though to say 'may I?' and when Maya nodded, she reached out and set her hand to the little belly. "I was just telling Mrs. Friar about that day in my office, when I overheard you on the phone. And now I hear you two are getting married?" she looked from Maya to Lucas and back. Maya pulled the chained ring from underneath her shirt to show it.

"In September," Maya confirmed, feeling without looking that Lucas was very much smiling at her side.

They had to leave for the museum soon after this, and Maya already suspected that within two or three minutes of their being gone, Melinda Friar would be at her computer, looking up bridal stores. She also suspected she'd already been looking and had a whole folder compiled.

As they climbed into the professor's car and started for the museum, Maya debated whether to launch into the conversation now or maybe just waiting until that night, back at the house. Maybe it wouldn't be the right time, what with the event and…

"Something on your mind, dear?" Patty asked, and Maya looked at her, hesitant. The woman smiled. "The way I see it, if there's something to get off your chest, better get on with it. No sense carrying that weight around if you're able to unload it."

"I… we…" she started, sighed.

"Moving back here?" Patty guessed, and at Maya's wide eyes she laughed. "I figured you might. You two should be with your families if you can, and there's nothing to stop you, is there?"

"No, not… not exactly. It's just… It means I'm going to have to transfer schools," she started. The professor nodded, agreeing. "I'm going to lose… well, I mean… I wish it didn't mean I'd have to lose you as one of my professors, I…"

"Maya, now, why would you say a thing like that," the woman shook her head and smiled. "True, you won't be in class with us going forward, but in case I haven't made myself clear, as we are headed to this event you and I, it matters a great deal to me to continue guiding you as much as I can. We will work something out, you have my word." Maya was at a loss for words for a moment, brought back only as she felt the emotions rushing through her.

"If I cry right now, I have no control over it," she declared. The professor laughed, and for the rest of the ride Maya truly felt like a weight was gone from her. She mentioned Pappy Joe's old house, how he had given it to Lucas and now the two of them were aiming to move out there after the end of the semester. She was about to add how Lucas and a few of the others would be at the house soon, to deal with the dust and cobwebs, but the mention of Pappy Joe had soon led to a question and another, and the only thing that stopped them on that line of discussion was their arrival at the museum.

"Oh, now, this is perfect," Patty declared as they walked in, once they had been confirmed by the man at the door. Maya thought she was talking about the museum, where many of the guests already walked about, while servers moved around with trays of small bites and wine and champagne. Instead, after they'd checked their coats, the professor had taken her lightly by the arm and guided her through until they found themselves before a tall Indian woman who lit up the moment she saw…

"Professor Robinson, I was hoping to see you here today," she spoke in a clear Scottish accent as the two women embraced.

"As did I, Meera, dear, especially now. Allow me to introduce you to one of my students. Maya Hart, this is Professor Meera Patil. I taught eight years in Edinburgh, oh, I won't say how long ago," she turned a smile to the woman. "I had the pleasure of having Meera as one of my students, top of her class. And when I returned and settled in Houston, we kept in touch, until I discovered she would be starting her career teaching at university, here in Austin." The way she looked to her, Maya didn't have to ask what she was implying. This woman here may well be one of her professors, once she relocated.

"She introduced me to so many people," she told Lucas, that night, as they were getting ready for bed. "I keep forgetting how connected she is to everyone, I just…" She was still so exhilarated from the day, from the things she'd seen and the people she'd spoken to. Up to now she had never felt so secure in their choice to move back as she did after this day with her professor.

"Less worrying now?" Lucas asked, and she nodded. "And hey, if things keep up like they were going downstairs earlier," he nodded out the door. She laughed, recalling the discourse maintained between Professor Robinson and Pappy Joe over dinner.

"I never got to ask, how did it go today with the house?" she wondered, taking a look to her sisters sleeping in the bed already.

"Well, we won't need masks to go in there tomorrow," he reported with a smile. "There's still so much to do, but we hit hard on the dust and the webs, it was everywhere. Dylan wanted to go and jump in the lake when we were done, but we reminded him it was December."

"I really wish I could have helped out there," Maya laughed, looping her arms around him. "I'm not saying I'm not going to benefit from you guys not letting me do some things along the way, but I am going to feel bad about it _sometimes_… How are your shoulders?" she asked, smirking. "All that dusting, that must have been so… strenuous…" she shook her head.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, there's definitely an ache," his face bloomed with a smile.

They had spent much of the following morning with Maya's siblings, back at the Hunter Hart house. They had originally planned to spend New Year's Eve night here, waking the girls in time for the countdown, seeing them through the fireworks, as they had done the year before. But now that they had decided instead to head to the house just him and her, they had both felt the need to compensate just a bit.

"Your mom called mine earlier," Maya told Lucas as they were driving up toward the house just after dinner. "They were talking wedding dresses." He had to work so hard not to laugh, and she saw it all on his face anyway. "I do want them there, and I want their input, I just don't want them to turn into _those_ moms on those shows sometimes, who just shake their heads at every dress they see and then try and force something ridiculous looking on to their daughters, and then they end up leaving empty handed because no one can make up their minds anymore."

"Ask my dad to go with you," Lucas told her after a beat of reflection. She looked at him. "What, I can't be there, and he's the next best thing to make sure my mother doesn't go off the rails. I don't know about your mom, would having _your_ dad there help?" She laughed. "What?"

"Nothing, I just imagined him in that store and it was funny…"

"Funny good or..."

"I don't know," she shrugged. "But I will think about it," she promised with a nod, just as they reached the house. "Oh, you did way more than dusting," she sat up.

What had greeted them as they'd come up the road a few days past had felt like driving into an untouched part of the woods, the grass tall and unruly. One lawnmower and a lot of landscaping later, it looked like people might actually be living here, looking after the land.

They'd wanted to do so much more than what they'd ended up doing. Lucas knew, and he had told the others as much, this was not about getting the whole place to shine. All they really needed to do was get the place to breathe easier by getting the place dusted, opening the windows out a bit while they were there… He'd had a lot of help and been thankful for every last one. Riley, Dylan, August, Sophie, Chiara, Franny, Kayla, Will, and a handful of the old basketball teams' players who were in town for the holidays.

They all knew about the engagement and the baby by now, of course. Once they'd told their parents, the news was fair game, and they'd put it out there for all to know. As far as the band was concerned, the followers had already known that Willow was expecting, but then Maya on top of that… Part of them had feared that there would be repercussions, like people would see them out there, two out of their five young members having babies, and they'd react badly somehow, but so far all they were seeing was positivity. It _had_ brought up the question of what they would do in a few months' time.

Willow would be out for shows before long, and then Maya would have to bow out as well. Much as they believed that Rosa, Kayla, and Riley could hold their own until the others were able to start doing shows again, even they felt hesitant about it. Back in the day of the original four, they _had_ performed most of the time just Maya, Riley, and Nadine, while Isadora would only get to join them whenever she would visit. That was just not what the band had been since there'd been the five of them, and though she'd never label herself in any way above them, Maya _was_ their frontwoman, no doubt about it. Without her, everything changed.

They would figure it out. Like everything else, they wouldn't have a choice… especially in six months' time, when four of them would be out in Houston and she'd be here, in Austin, with Lucas and the baby, in this house.

"It's like the 'I just cleaned my phone screen' version of this place…" Maya declared as they walked through the door. "By the way," she held her index up. "I need to clean my phone screen. But later," she moved forward, looking around. She smiled, noticing someone – and she suspected this someone was in the room with her – had cleaned the glass on the frame with the picture of young Lucas on a horse. The sheets had been removed from the furniture, which was a tremendous help in getting the place to look a bit more like someone's house. It also showed some of the work that still needed doing, but they could ignore that for now.

Going up the stairs, they had found their way into the master bedroom, what had been Lucas' grandparents' room until his grandmother's passing. It felt at once as though a lot of time had been spent here the day before, not out of some effort to make it theirs, but more for nostalgia's sake. Maya spotted a few items piled on the old bed, small things like framed photos, some old theater stubs, a hat…

"I was thinking maybe he'd like to have these," Lucas admitted. "Him or my dad."

"We'll bring them back," Maya smiled and nodded. "Hey, so your grandparents lived out here for decades, yeah?"

"Since the day they got married," Lucas nodded.

"Which means one of these other rooms was your father's room when he was growing up, wasn't it?" she asked. He smirked, moving out into the hall and indicating the room across from the master, not the one where Pappy Joe had moved after becoming a widower, but the third room.

Tom Friar had not lived here in a very long time, and it wasn't as though his parents had kept a shrine, but if you looked around you could definitely see small details that a young man had spent his adolescence here, somewhere in the early 1990s.

"Oh, now, we need to have a discussion about this," Maya moved to the worn poster on the wall.

"Nope, come on," Lucas pulled her back out of the room as she giggled.

"So, where are we sleeping tonight?" she asked as they went down the stairs again.

"You can have the couch, I'll sleep on the floor," he told her.

"But… spoon…" she mimed, cranking up the pitiful look.

"I'm not having you sleep on the floor, not now, and the beds haven't been slept in for so long, how do we know…" he started to count off.

"We have blankets, we will work something out up there. Come on, don't make me sleep on my own. I will give you The Eyes all night," she 'threatened,' giving him a preview. There was no resisting her and they both knew it.

Getting their sleeping situation settled ahead of time was probably for the best, though he had to admit he felt a bit uneasy about their taking his grandparents' bed. He knew it was silly, but he couldn't help himself, not now at least. In time, he knew, he would have to, but that time was not now. He would get there, he hoped, in the months to come, before the two moved in, ready to become the three of them.

"I… I want to keep this base," he touched one of the four posts of the bed's frame. It was in dire need of being freshened up, sanded and varnished all over again, but he would put that on the list he'd already started.

"Okay, we will," Maya smiled at once and he nodded.

They would spend the rest of the evening, waiting for midnight, sitting huddled in blankets around the campfire he had built up for them down the path from the house. Maya had brought her guitar, and so they sat there for a few hours, talking here, playing and singing there, just… taking in the night and thinking about the year that was about to start. The year where they would be married, the year where their little sprout came into the world… It would be a big one, the biggest.

"See, this is what's going to stop me playing eventually," Maya had laughed when she'd first pulled the guitar from its case and brought it before herself. "The more I'll expand, the further it'll be."

"Still works now," he reminded her, holding up his phone sideways.

"Are you filming me, sir?" she squinted at him.

"Chronicling," he specified.

"Riiiight, right," she nodded, setting her hands in position over the instrument. "Then you have to sing with me." He opened his mouth to protest, but she wouldn't have it. "Either you do or I don't," she shook her head before moving her arms back down. She held his gaze, held and held it, until finally he sighed and she grinned. "Too easy," she declared as she picked up her guitar again, strumming lightly. "Let's see," she looked up, thinking of a song they could do. "Is it too late for Christmas songs?"

"My mother would say as long as there's still decorations everywhere you're in the clear," Lucas told her.

"Sounds good to me."

"You're taking this woman dress shopping in two days," he cut back. Maya chuckled, starting on a definite song now.

"You're not going to rattle me, now sing, Huckleberry Claus."

The later the night had gotten, Maya wasn't so up for playing anymore. As they'd rolled past eleven, she had now moved to rest cozy in Lucas' arms as they looked to the stars and thought about the new year.

"I can't wait until it moves," Lucas told her, smiling.

"I can't wait until we don't have to call it an it anymore, right Sprout?" Maya peered inside the blankets wrapped around them like a cocoon of body warmth.

"Any thoughts on names?" he asked. She hummed, pondering.

"Riley would say that Riley is an excellent name that works no matter what comes out of me in a few months." He laughed. "If it's a boy, we _could_ name him after you," she turned her eyes up to look at him. "I mean, due in June? He'd be a perfect _June-ior_," she pointed out.

"Wow," he laughed harder now, though at the same time he couldn't pretend like he hadn't gotten a bit of a jolt at the thought of a son, carrying on his name. "Well, in that case, if it's a girl, we'd have to call her Maya."

"I don't know about that," she snorted, settling again. "Then again, do we want to name him or her after someone or do we want to pick a name that would be all their own? No pressure, nothing but a blank slate for them to fill."

"That works, too," he agreed, kissing the top of her head.

"So, basically, we're nowhere closer than we were a minute ago," she frowned to herself.

"Okay, close your eyes," he told her. She looked up. "Close them, come on," he insisted, so she did. "This is what we're going to do. You're still convinced it's a boy?"

"Ninety-ten, yeah… That ten's mostly for you though."

"Right, and I'm still… ninety-five five on it being a girl."

"Only giving me five, wow…"

"So, what if we just decide on those… I'll come up with a girl name, maybe two or three, and you'll do the same for a boy."

"How is that getting us closer?" she tried again, opening her eyes.

"I'm getting to that part. Close them." She scooted back against him, shutting her eyes to humor him. "You're the artist here, use your imagination. It's… eight, nine years down the line. We're living out here, in this house. You teach at our old school, and I have my clinic."

"Good for you," she tapped his arm blind.

"And we live out here – for the sake of your vision – with our son. He's always running around the place, chasing after the dogs." She laughed.

"He needs a haircut," she provided.

"You see him?"

"Yeah… He's got your eyes." Listening to her, it was hard not to pass her another five points on the boy-girl odds. His cheek lay pressed to the top of her head.

"Right, so you hold on to that image, hold it tight… And you call out to him, call him back to the house. What do you call him?" He listened to the crackle of the fire, the distant sounds of cars on the road, likely people headed to the fireworks nearby. Maya stayed quiet, but looking at her he could see a smile on her face, like she'd gotten her answer but she was holding on to it. "Did you call him?" he asked.

"I did," she replied.

"And that's his name?" he smiled when she told him.

"Might be, might not… What about you? Do _you_ have one picked? If we find ourselves with a daughter?" His smile lingered on as he nodded and told her. "That's a good one," she sniffled just a bit. "Maybe in the long run we can have them both."

"I think so, too," he reached to stroke her cheek, kissing her under the light of the stars and the blaze of the fire. Their lips had not yet parted when her phone gave off the alarm that it was now 11:59. She grasped on to his jacket, saying without having to say it. _Kiss me into the new year…_ So, he did, the seconds ticking away unnoticed, until somewhere in the distance the sky burst with sound and with colors. Finally, they took in air, looking to one another with glowing smiles.

"Happy New Year," they spoke, almost as one, and they laughed. They couldn't imagine a better way to ring in the start of the Year of the Sprout.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	11. Something New

_Chapter 11_  
_Something New_

They had stayed at the house well into the morning of January 1st 2023. They'd remained outside past the end of the fireworks display, until the fire had been getting lower. Once Lucas had put it out properly, they'd walked back up to the house, each with an arm around the other, as he also carried her guitar case. They had gone up to the master bedroom and climbed on to the blankets they'd laid over the bed, bundling themselves up against the chill. They had slept right through the night, waking to a peaceful morning sun. When they had finally convinced themselves to get out of bed, they'd made their way down the stairs.

Along with blankets and clothes and other supplies, they had also packed all necessary materials to make breakfast. Not trusting to the appliances, they had gone back and lit the fire again. Maya had gone walking about while he went about preparing their meal. She wanted to take in the land that would be theirs. Lucas was about to call her back when he spotted her walking almost speedily back toward him. Her arms appeared to be closed over something she'd bundled in her jacket.

"Found this one just wandering around," she told him, and as he walked over, he saw a small dog, a Jack Russell Terrier by the looks of her, maybe one or two years old, nuzzled up against her. "She doesn't have a collar, but she doesn't look like she hasn't been eating. Don't think she's hurt either, no idea how long she's been on her own. Maybe she belongs to someone in the area?" She was certainly energetic. Lucas smiled as she went sniffing at his hand, pressing her head into his palm.

"We can drive around on the way out," he suggested.

"Oh, good, we get to introduce ourselves to the neighbors," Maya grinned. "And you get to have breakfast with us," she pulled the dog from her jacket and set her on the ground. Immediately, she started to run around and bark, though she didn't wander away from the two humans. She would trail after Maya like she was her mother.

The search for the mystery dog's owners had taken longer than expected, though mostly because every house they stopped at would usually follow a pattern. The people there would recognize Lucas at once for a Friar and Joe's grandson. They'd find out about how he and his wife to be were looking to move in to the old house somewhere in late May or early June, right around the time their son or daughter would be born. They'd already be insisting that the two of them come in and have something to eat or drink, and when they'd find out about the dog they would want and set something down for her, too. Maya and Lucas couldn't refuse, so they would go in, spending a half hour or so at every house. None of them were missing a dog, not until the last one.

They knew it was the right place when they spotted a young girl, nine or ten, sitting out front and looking red in the face like she'd been crying hard. Soon as they'd gotten close, the dog had started to fret, and bark. The girl had heard this and looked around until she'd seen the car. Her face had opened right up and she'd come running down the road, stopping as the car did. Maya had climbed out and set the pup on the ground. She took off like an arrow, right into the girl's waiting arms.

"Coraline! You found her!" she cried, hugging the dog who now looked content with licking her face off. "She got scared last night because of the fireworks. She ran and it was dark and I couldn't find her. Dad said I had to wait until morning to go looking."

"I like the name," Maya beamed. "The movie or the book?" The girl nodded happily as she replied that she loved both. "I'm Maya, that's Lucas," she pointed to him as he raised his hand in greeting. "We're going to be living back up the road in a few months."

"The ghost house?" the girl asked, almost reverently.

"No ghosts there, just a lot of dust," Lucas assured her. "And that's all gone now. Are you the Sandersons' granddaughter by any chance?"

"Yeah! My name's Missy… Well, Melissa, but everyone calls me Missy," she explained, in a tone that sounded more like 'that's the name I prefer, don't forget.'

"Well, happy new year, Missy… and Coraline," Maya smiled. "We should see each other around, especially after we move in over the summer."

Little Missy had waved them off after they'd gotten back in the car and started back up the road, and they'd returned the gesture. They were now significantly later than they had planned to return home, which in no way sounded like a good idea with a gaggle of future grandparents already fretting after you. Maya had called both her mother and his, explaining to them both that they were on their way, after a small delay which had nothing to do with the baby.

The rest of their day had gone about as well as any New Year's Day could hope to go, and it had ended with the two of them back to spending the night at the Hunter Hart house. If they had believed that this action would keep them from having to deal with Melinda Friar first thing in the morning on Dress Day, they would come to realize they had been sorely mistaken.

They had been enjoying these opportunities to sleep in later than usual, whether or not they actually took those and only slept until their usual early time. Today, they had managed to sleep in, both of them. Their return had not meant a renewed 'barrier' made of Maya's little sisters. Shawn had convinced them to sleep up in their room the night before, leaving the visiting couple to resume their usually preferred spooning.

When Maya had opened her eyes, the first thing she had noticed was the sound of voices, somewhere outside her room. Turning her eyes up to the alarm clock, she could see it was just after nine. As she lay there in the quiet room, she could just make out the voices. Her mother, her father… and the Friars. Lucas' parents were in the kitchen, bright and early… ready to go shopping.

"Oh, boy…" she breathed. The dogs sleeping in the corner of the room were all staring at her. Ghost, Queen, Tuck… She missed their little fuzzy faces so much sometimes. When Tuck came up to the side of the bed and set his head just on to the mattress, next to her hand, she smirked and set to petting him. "You are such a nerd," she quietly chuckled.

"No wonder he's named after me," Lucas' voice sounded from behind her.

"Your parents are here," she informed him.

"I know, I thought I was dreaming them and then I realized I was awake."

"Today's going to be so weird… Also, if I come back later and I'm a bit overly sarcastic, just don't take it personally, okay?" she sighed.

"Look, just because I can't be there in person, doesn't mean I have to leave you alone with them. You can still write to me and I won't see your dress, whichever one you choose. Besides, just remember that as crazy loud as she can get sometimes, she can tone it down if you really need her to."

"I'll keep that in mind," she nodded before turning over to look at him. "I really wish you could be there today. I mean… pretty much the only reason you're not is because we're both sort of… adhering to this superstition about seeing the bride before the wedding, and it doesn't really mean anything if you don't believe. Except… more than the superstition, I just know how you get when you don't know what's coming, and I want that. I want to see the look on your face when you see me, at the end of that aisle, walking toward you, in my dress. It won't be the same if you've seen it before."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "I _could_ wear a scarf over my eyes," he suggested after a beat.

"I know you would do it, too, but it's alright. I can handle your mother… and mine… and besides, Riley and Sophie a…"

She was interrupted as they heard a knock at the door, followed by the sound of Katy Hart's voice. She had been hearing their voices, so she figured they were awake.

"We should get there as soon as possible, it'll give us more time to look around." Maya stared mutely at Lucas, alerts in her eyes. He smiled, kissing her lightly. _You'll be fine._

The store wasn't small, although compared to the store they knew from the television show, it was hard to decide if they could call it big. Maya didn't dare mention aloud that Sophie had volunteered to use 'Air Zvolensky' and fly her back to New York, to actually go to that store. No, they would get her dress here. She felt confident that she would find something great.

The saleswoman had looked across the group as they came in and, when she'd learned which one was the bride with whom she had an appointment, her gaze had zeroed in almost immediately on her small bump.

"When are you due?" she asked, not exactly in the sort of cheerfully curious way she constantly heard, though not harshly either.

"June… 11th."

"And the wedding?"

"September 3rd."

"Alright," the woman nodded. "Please, follow me."

Stepping through the store, she'd felt as though she could barely concentrate, her eyes drawn every which way, stimulated by the sight of so many dresses, varying in styles, in shades, and – she knew – in price. She had a budget, one she had deeply considered before coming in. She knew there were some within the group who was accompanying her today who would practically insist on garnishing that budget, bumping it up far above her own means. Every instinct in her said not to take it, but she knew better than to think that they would back down. The best she could hope for was that they could meet somewhere in the middle. She didn't want to spend a fortune on a dress she would only wear for a few hours. Maybe it was that she was about to have a baby to provide for, while eventually going back to school, but she was suddenly very aware of what money they did or didn't have to spare. All these years she'd had to watch her mother work so hard to provide for her suddenly felt much more real.

Her entourage today consisted of both her parents and Lucas' parents, Mr. & Mrs. Matthews, Riley, Sophie, Chiara, Franny, Kayla, and Nadine. It was a lot, and more than that she knew that more people meant more opinions left to split off in different directions, but they were here with her now and she couldn't imagine them not being there.

"Don't go wandering off all over the place, please?" she'd asked them. "Just stay here, let me look by myself? Just at first," she'd amended, seeing they were about to argue. Finally, they'd all agreed to stay where they were, while she followed the saleswoman.

Melinda Friar wasn't the only one who'd done her research. Maya had been casually looking ever since Christmas Eve, first online, then getting her hands on every last bridal magazine she could find once the stores were open again. She had a fair idea of what would or wouldn't look good on her, what would suit her figure and her height. She had no way of predicting what her body would look like after the baby was born, how long it would take her to lose the weight, but she knew it would all eventually come together for her, once the dresses were on her instead of in pictures.

She had told everything she had figured out for herself to the saleswoman, who seemed to approve of her choices. She brought her to a few different racks, pulling out one dress and then another. She had this sort of 'frail but distinguished' look about her, but wow could she carry an arm load of dresses. She'd brought Maya to a changing room, where she'd stripped down to her underwear before being helped into the first dress.

Maya hadn't known exactly what it would feel like to look at herself in a dress like this for the first time. The fact that her emotions were a bit off the rails these days didn't exactly help either. Part of her kind of hoped she would hate the first dress, that she'd have a strong enough reaction to be able to say 'there, I will not lose it.'

But that first dress had been beautiful already on the rack, and on her it felt kind of wonderful. She'd needed to take a moment and turn her face away, take a deep breath, and another, before she could look at herself again.

"Does this look like something you'd like to share with your people out there?" the saleswoman asked.

"I just need a minute," Maya told her, taking a couple extra deep breaths. She knew that, usually, when a bride would see herself in a dress and she started to cry, it was a pretty safe bet that she would leave with that dress, that it was the one. Unfortunately for her, Maya knew she couldn't trust that reflex, not now. That was why she needed her family, her friends. That didn't mean she wanted to skew the results by going out there with tears in her eyes. When she'd finally gotten a hold of herself, she had left the dressing room and gone to show the others.

As impactful as this moment had been for her, she knew it would run into a few of those out there waiting for her like an eighteen-wheeler loaded with bricks.

Her mother had gotten one look at her and she'd covered her mouth with her hand, unable to hold back the waves of feelings she was experiencing, seeing her baby girl stand before her, a young woman about to be married, about to become a mother herself... Her father had gone into immediate tear-control mode, even as his face seemed intent on splitting and smiling. Lucas' mother looked absolutely gob smacked, her hand clasping her husband's arm at once. His father, meanwhile, looked at his future daughter-in-law much in the way he'd done for years, ever since it had become clear that she would one day be part of the family, making her as good as the daughter he'd never had. Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, who'd had a similar affection for her from the day she'd crawled through their daughter's window, whether they knew it or not, looked much the same. Riley was just grinning, and it was kind of perfect.

"Right, be honest, just… not _too_ honest, okay? I break easily these days."

She watched now as they all sort of took a moment to consciously tone down their initial reactions and actually look at her in that first dress, which was potentially the most nerve-wracking thing so far today. They were all looking at her, like really looking at her, and she could only stand there.

"Could really use some words," she incited them. "You know, before I actually have the baby and all…"

"It's… nice," her father finally offered. To anyone else it might have sounded like he didn't like it at all but didn't want to disappoint her, but she knew him enough to know that unless she came out here wearing something truly ugly or distasteful – which was not her intention – then he would like everything she showed him, because even though she was the only one of his children he was not related to by blood, she had been the first person he had the privilege to call his daughter, and that made her special all on its own. She raised her eyebrow at him and he apologized quietly.

"Anyone else?"

"It's only the first one we've seen," Melinda told her, sounding like she expected Maya to try on no less than fifty… or a hundred. "We need to be able to compare this one to the others."

"How about she puts on another, and we look at that one, and we can say which one we liked best of the two," Nadine offered. "And then whichever one wins out gets pitted against the third, and so on…" Maya tilted her head at her. "Unless, of course, you find the one you want for sure, and then we'll all be with you," she added with a smile.

"I can work with that," Maya declared, looking around to her people. There seemed to be some hesitation, some of them maybe wanting to have more say in the matter, but finally they all agreed. "Great, then I'll be back," she carefully came down from the small platform and returned to the dressing room.

The second dress she was made to try never made it out of the dressing room. Maya had taken one look at herself and knew it had been a total miss.

"Okay, we have to hurry and get me in the next one or they'll know we skipped one and they'll want to see it anyway," she looked to the saleswoman, who seemed to be coming around to her way of thinking. She showed once again that she was a pro at her job, helping Maya out of the second and into the third-heretofore-known-as-second dress in record time. By the time they'd leave the store, Maya would be pretty certain the saleswoman, Selene, may have been her idol.

Dress "two" had been good enough to show everyone, though it soon found itself in a heated match with dress one. Suddenly, everyone was very opinionated, and Maya was briefly speechless, listening to the back and forth between the supporters for dress one and dress two. When it came down that her twelve landed in a six-to-six split, it came down to her – finally – to cast the deciding vote. She looked at herself in the mirror once again. If she was honest with herself, she hadn't had as strong of a reaction to this one as to the first. She'd liked it enough to show it, but she still remembered how the first one had felt. Was it just that it _had_ been the first, or could she actually have found her dress on the first try?

Okay, maybe not, but it definitely won out for her over this one, so she cast her vote for number one and the cycle started again, with her and Selene doing their thing in the dressing room. The first couple ones had been a bit overwhelming for more than one reason. She had never worn a dress she couldn't just slip on by herself. By the fourth – no, the 'third,' – the novelty had started to wear off and she could concentrate a bit more.

"Woah…" she breathed as she looked at herself in the mirror. Now she was sure that the last one had not been meant to stay, because this one was getting her heart going again.

"We're showing this one, are we?" Selene asked with a knowing smirk.

"In a minute," Maya nodded. "I just need to…"

"I'll be right outside if you need me."

Maya watched the woman step out and shut the door before turning to look at herself again. Her bump was playing its 'tiny but mighty' card, and of course it didn't close as it would when it would be fitted to her post-baby body, whatever that was, but… but… She could see his face in the back of her mind. Lucas… She saw him, and she imagined him seeing her, and… Was this it? Had she actually found it? Had she…

She dared herself to look at the price tag and blinked. She'd told Selene her budget, had even bumped it about five hundred to give her some cushion. This one went a thousand over her cushion. She might have picked up the wrong one, or maybe she'd misheard, or…

When she stepped out to show her next dress, it wasn't number 'three.' That one was still in the dressing room, but when the saleswoman had come back in, Maya had asked her to help her out of it. Selene had looked surprised, but only briefly, and then she'd helped make the switch.

What followed was an hour of dress after dress, and a continuing battle as each new dress faced off against the one who'd previously won, sometimes taking over the top spot, other times failing to make enough impact to become anything other than the next one eliminated.

Maya hated every minute of it.

It wasn't that the dresses weren't beautiful. Most of them were genuinely stunning, and they looked it on her, made her friends and family react in a constant flow of awe. But… they weren't the dress. Specifically, they weren't _that_ dress, the one still in the changing room. She had dreaded from the start that something like this would happen, that she'd get attached to a dress she wasn't supposed to, that it would ruin any other dress' chance of grabbing her attention in the same way. It would be a dive deep into a never ending vortex of indecision and then she'd either have to settle for the next best thing and be miserable for it, or she'd have to leave empty-handed today and try again, probably in Houston, after they'd gone home.

In that hour, she had gone through the load brought in by Selene, and then had gone about trying on the dresses that the others had finally been 'allowed' to go and find and get her to wear. She did her best to look a bit more interested here, unable to disappoint them too much. By the time she'd gotten through the last of them though, as she sat back in the changing room in nothing but her underwear and the robe Selene had given her to wear while she considered things, she just couldn't do it anymore, couldn't try on one more dress. She sat there, alone, absently running her hand over her belly as though she tried to remind herself she _wasn't_ alone, and she wished he was here with her… Lucas… She reached out for her phone, sticking out of her coat pocket.

_Maya: :(_

_Lucas: That bad? Was it my mother?_

_Maya: No, she's actually been great._

_Lucas: So what's the problem?_

_Maya: I made THAT mistake._

_Lucas: How much?_

Already 'talking' to him made her feel better, just a bit. She appreciated in particular that he understood exactly what had happened.

_Maya: Somewhere between 'uh oh' and 'holy crap.'_

_Lucas: How many dresses did you try on?_

_Maya: I lost count after twelve, maybe twenty…_

_Lucas: Which one was it?_

_Maya: If anyone asks it was the third. Between you and me it was the fourth._

_Lucas: So you tried on maybe sixteen other dresses and none of them worked?_

_Maya: I looked like a fluff ball in one._

_Lucas: How fluffy was it?_

_Maya: Like a giant's powder puff._

She laughed, breathing out. She waited for his next reply, all the while looking to the holy crap dress hanging across the room. All she kept thinking was 'why did you have to be so pretty?'

She was still waiting for a reply when there was a knock at the door. Selene had to be wondering what was taking her so long, and she really didn't know what she was going to tell her.

"Barely met the woman and I don't want to let her down…" she muttered to herself.

"Maya?" She blinked, head turning back to the door.

"Mr. Friar?" she stood up and moved to stand by the door, pressing her hand to it like she needed to make sure he wouldn't come in and see the sorry state she was in. "What are you doing back here?"

"Well, you've been back here for a while now, and we were wondering if everything was alright." She hesitated. "Maya, if you are getting overwhelmed, you don't have to make a choice today."

"I know that…" she spoke quietly, looking back to the dress hanging near her.

"Or maybe, and this is what I'm thinking, you _did_ make a choice, but you won't let yourself go through with it." She felt like a gaping fish, looking for words, but the silence spoke for her. "How much do you need?" Mr. Friar asked. She sighed, but she told him. Including the 'cushion,' it was more than what _she_ was putting into it, not even including alterations and any other fees… "Okay, so here's what's going to happen. Melinda and I will put in… five hundred. Your parents will do the same. The Matthews have asked to put something in as well if they could. They'll be good for the same. How are we looking so far? Do we have a deal? Oh, and my father is happy to pick up any extra." He paused. "You still there?"

"Yeah…" she replied, her voice warbled with tears.

"You got any tissues in there?"

"Yeah," she laughed through her tears. "C-can you find Selene?"

"I'm here," the woman's voice sounded from outside the door, and Maya took a breath.

"Mr. Friar, go back with the others, please? I'll be out in a minute."

She felt almost shy about putting it back on, like she still felt deep down that she shouldn't, or maybe the opposite, like for as much as it meant to her when she'd first put it on, now it meant that much more because of the generosity of others. They might not have seen it that way. They would just have called it love, for her, for Lucas. But she wanted to do right by them.

"Selene, do you have all the other stuff, you know, the accessories and…"

"You just breathe now, Miss Hart, and let me do my job," Selene gave her a small smile.

So, she breathed, and she let her do her job, closing her eyes when she was told to close them and waiting… waiting… _If this was the show right now,_ she thought, _there would be that song starting up in the background, like 'here's the big moment.'_

Maya still felt as though her heart was going a mile a minute as she carefully made her way from the changing room to where the others waited for her. There was a small moment where she feared maybe she would have gone through all this fuss and then they would see the dress and tell her she was mad. She squashed that thought as soon as it formed itself though. She may have been shaky with her emotions these days, but under all that she was still Maya Hart, and she could do confidence.

When they saw her, she doubted it was the work of her confidence alone that had their faces fill with awe the way they did. She could have ticked them off a list, like dominoes, as one by one they felt that swell of emotions, tears rising out of them… If she couldn't feel her wild beating heart she could have thought it was some fever dream.

Katy Hart and Melinda Friar both stood at the same time, but as they paused and looked to one another, Melinda smiled and signaled for her to go ahead. Katy approached her daughter, taking her hand to help her off the platform before hugging her close.

"Thank you," Maya whispered at her ear.

"I would have done it for you even if we'd never come here, do you understand me, baby girl?" Katy whispered back.

"Yeah…" Maya sniffled, nodding.

Given her chance now, Melinda Friar had come forward, beaming from ear to ear as she pressed her hands to either side of her future daughter-in-law's face, touching her forehead lightly to hers for a second before looking back at her. For being known as the one with so much to say she almost had too much to say, right now she was actually speechless, and it touched Maya more than anything she could have said. She always wondered why people got so emotional over this moment, but right now she thought maybe it was just… a giant step toward the leap to come, the midway point between a past that ran the length of hers and Lucas' lives, and a future that would outlast them all.

Tom Friar came up to her now, and he had that knowing smirk about him that always reminded her of Lucas, so she had to wonder…

"He texted you, didn't he?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I didn't see his message until after I spoke to you?" he asked, hugging her before stepping back to get another look at her.

"I guess we'll never know," she smiled, even more so as she saw her father stepping up toward her. His eyes were red, just a bit, like he'd either gotten too little of sleep or too much of drink, or in this case an expected number of tears. "You okay there? You need a minute?" she teased him, grinning.

"I'm going to need about eight months," he replied, taking hold of her.

"I'll give you eight months and a day, and then I'm coming for you again."

By the time they left the store, Maya was wiped. She slept on the ride home, waking up just as they were pulling up to the house. Walking in, she found Lucas sitting on the couch, MJ asleep across his lap. The twins sat on the ground, eyes glued to the television as they watched a little curly redheaded girl sing about Tomorrow. As her mother carefully picked up the sleeping boy and carried him up to his room, Maya went and sat on the couch with her fiancé. _Eight months and a day,_ she thought, as she dozed off. _We can make it._

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	12. Prepare For The Unexpected

_Chapter 12_  
_Prepare For the Unexpected_

TWO WEEKS LATER

When they'd returned home from Austin, the holidays now good and behind them, it felt as though they had been out there for months instead of two weeks. So much had happened, between getting engaged, telling their families and friends – those who hadn't known – about the baby and now about the wedding, seeing the house, Christmas, New Year's, dress shopping… They had walked back into the house and it just felt to most of them like all they wanted to do was sit and enjoy some brief peace and quiet before everything else started again.

It was just as well that they did try and enjoy it, because the next two weeks would prove themselves eventful, too. The first of these events came on the morning following their return, where Maya came down the stairs, believing herself to be the first one up, only to walk past the couch on her way to the kitchen… and pause… and turn back… and discover Riley and Dylan just sort of halfway sitting and halfway lying down on the couch, kissing. More than kissing, they were full on making out.

She couldn't have reacted quietly if she'd tried, the surprise had been so that she'd cried out. At once, the pair on the couch had split off and scrambled to stand. At the same time, there was a sudden rumble upstairs, bringing a barely awake Lucas down the stairs like he believed she'd fallen or something, and then in turn _his_ noise had gone and woken up Sophie and Chiara, who also ended up coming down.

And that was how they all learned that Riley and Dylan had started. Soon, it would be dating, but at that point it was just two people who, in all the whirlwind of seeing their friends get engaged and head toward starting a family, had finally come to their senses and been open to one another. It was _not_ the way they had intended to share this news, but what was done was done.

After that, things really hit their stride with their return to work, and with the start of the winter semester. For Lucas and Maya both, knowing that these would be the last few months they spent living in Houston, working at Coleman's, working at Isabel's restaurant, going to this school they'd been going to for a year and a half, making friends, making lives… It already felt as though they were detaching themselves from all of it, bit by bit, inch by inch. Suddenly they were just not as much a part of it as they'd been, they were just passing by, on their way to something else.

Lucas got to feeling after a few days of this like it was all sort of unbalanced, unfair, and he got to have the better half of it, because no one would know, unless they saw him with Maya, understood that they were together. But her… As one week passed and then another, and she found herself with four months of this pregnancy behind her, it really got to feel like she had not one piece of clothing left to her name that could have hidden her belly. She wasn't trying to hide anymore, of course, she was downright showing off, but it was really astounding how much difference those last few weeks had done in defining this change in her.

So, when she'd walk the halls at school, or sit in class, when she'd be working at the restaurant, she'd get the constant awareness of eyes turned to her, growing aware of her condition. She'd find herself fielding question after question, too, usually the same ones. Then, of course, she'd made her announcement to the band's followers.

She'd tried and failed to get in touch with her New York siblings, knowing that if she didn't get to tell them herself and they saw the post – and Cara would definitely see the post – then the secret would be theirs to find, not from her… not directly anyway.

_Cara: OMG you're having a baby?! Why didn't you tell us?_

_Maya: I tried, but no one answered. I didn't want to tell you guys in a text. Call me soon?_

Ten minutes later, she was on Skype with Sam and Cara. They were both still in shock over the news, by the looks of them. When she'd stood up and turned, showing them her belly, the shock had gone to amazement.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Cara asked at once.

"You can't know that yet," Sam turned to his little sister. "Remember when Mom had Wyatt?"

"Oh, yeah…"

"When are you going to have it?" Sam asked instead.

"Early to mid-June," Maya smiled. For once, she hadn't minded the questions so much. "Oh, also, Lucas and I are getting married in September," she told them. Cara gasped; Sam smiled. "I'm going to need to talk to your mother, because of course you guys have to be there."

"What about…" Sam started to ask before clamming up.

Maya still thought about the question, though she had answered it to her siblings. What about their father? What was there to say? Even as she'd come to know her siblings, either being the visitor among them or the visited by them, she had done everything in her power to minimize their interactions if not to ensure they didn't happen at all. She had tempted fate too many times, and she wouldn't do it again. And now…

It was really something she had grown to take note of, how every time she found herself feeling scared, or startled, her hand would go immediately to her belly. Her child was the size of an avocado by now, nowhere near big enough to survive outside of her, but she loved that little sprout so much already that anything… or anyone… that might come and hurt it in any way… She wasn't going to let that happen. So, the answer had been no. She wasn't going to have her birth father at her wedding.

Now her twenty-first birthday was coming up. In the midst of everything else that was happening, of school, and work, and the baby, and the wedding plans, somehow, that day was getting to feel less and less important. She didn't want a party, and she had made it very clear to the others that this was not one of those 'I'm saying I don't want something, but really I do or I will suddenly realize that I do and I'll be so glad if you do it anyway' things. She would be perfectly fine just having dinner with the rest of them, and her family when they would drive up to Houston, but no more than that.

Last year, when Lucas had turned twenty-one, they'd had a Party with a capital P. It was a big deal, twenty-one, and they had celebrated it. As far as she was concerned, for herself, she was already celebrated out. Christmas and New Year's had really been Pregnancy and Engagement, everyone making a fuss over her and the baby and Lucas. She just wanted to be able to relax, take it in… She knew it wasn't a requisite to have fun, but for some reason her not being able to drink on her twenty-first birthday felt weird. Then no one around her would dare, or they would and they would look awkward the whole time…

It wasn't all frustrations over constant questions and disinterest over milestone birthday parties, or getting back into the rhythm of juggling work and school and band and home. The two of them would make sure to stop, at least once a day, stop and really take it in. They were getting married, they were having their first child… Lucas was growing more and more confident over indulging himself when he wanted to 'talk' to the sprout. Sometimes she would just go ahead and sit on the bed whenever she had some reading to do for school, putting her headphones on and listen to music as she read along, all the while knowing that sooner or later she would feel the light pressure of his hand at her belly and she would know that he was there, talking to the baby.

More often than not, she would end up nudging her headphones away from her ear, just so she could hear him, to know what it was he would tell their child who couldn't even hear him yet. Sometimes he would be telling him or her about his day. Other times he would be talking about a movie or a book that he loved, like he couldn't wait to introduce them to it. To her vast amusement, sometimes she heard him reciting some art facts he still retained from his days as a museum guide. And sometimes he would tell stories of the two of them. He would talk about how they'd met, or how they'd put up shelves in her room that one time… Today, he was talking about the night the two of them and Zay had attempted to run away to New York.

"Now, I'm not saying that you should try that…" he insisted, lightly prodding just above her belly button with his index. She laughed, and he turned to look at her. "Aren't you supposed to be reading?" he smiled.

"Hey, a girl needs a break sometimes," she shrugged. "It's like when you pour soda in a glass and the bubbles start to rush up. You got to let those go down before they just spill over the top."

"Good point," he nodded, continuing to 'walk' his index and middle fingers along her belly.

"Itsy bitsy spider?" she asked, finally setting her book and headphones aside, propping up her head a bit more by sticking her arm under her head.

"Not really. I hated it when I was little, I was very ticklish as a kid."

"Are you suggesting you're not anymore?" Maya smirked.

"I will neither confirm nor deny," he stared at her. She laughed.

"Right, no, of course."

For a little while they remained silent, as she watched him, carrying on his trek that was not a song about a poor unfortunate spider caught in the rain. Even he couldn't have told her what he was doing exactly. All he knew was that he loved being here like this, with her, 'with' the baby…

"Can we talk about something?" she finally asked. He looked at her as she sat up, her shirt falling back over her previously exposed belly in the process. "I've been thinking a lot about that check your parents gave us." After a moment, he let out a breath and nodded.

"Me, too," he admitted.

"I just…" she sighed, "I get whey they gave it to us, and I am so thankful, for that, for the help with the dress… But I keep going back to think about when I was growing up, and how much my mother did to support me after my father left, even before. And you, your parents did the same for you. Did your grandparents pitch in that much?"

"No," Lucas shook his head.

"No, because they were taking care of us, of you and me. I know we're not as settled as we could be, but we do have money now. We're not rich, but… shouldn't we be trying to look after this little guy or girl on our own? As much as we can?"

"We have the house," he reminded her. "That was a gift, it…"

"I'm not suggesting we don't take it, that'd be foolish of us, giving it up, no… But let's think about it this way, and please, if you don't agree, tell me." He nodded. "Your parents told us to use this money in whatever way we wanted. The thing I keep thinking is with… With _half_ of that, we could make sure that the house is ready for the three of us when we move in."

He thought about it. He was actually headed down to Austin in the morning along with Bishop and Dylan, to start going through the house, removing the things they were either donating, recycling, or throwing away, and to establish what needed replacing, what still worked well despite being old, and what they would need to add because his grandfather just didn't have it. A lot of that last category would be baby stuff, of course, like a crib, a changing table, all of that.

"Yeah, I think so," Lucas finally replied.

"Right, so… we use half for the house, and we put the rest in the bank, start a college fund. Anything else after that, we take care of it ourselves. No more handouts." He had a face like he wanted to say something, and in a second she sort of had the same one. "Yeah, I know, 'handouts' feels like the wrong word."

"We might need help sometimes, and that's fine, so long as it's our choice to ask for it," he told her. She smiled. That sounded right to her. "We're probably going to get more after the baby's born, and for the wedding…"

"College fund," she ticked the first one by tapping one index to the other, "And… rainy day fund," she tapped it to the next finger. Another agreement reached, and the subject was dropped. She set her head back down, breathing out. "Should I leave you two alone?" she asked after a few moments, feeling him slide her shirt off her belly again.

"I was in the middle of a story, it would be rude not to finish."

"Right, manners. Continue."

The next morning, after Lucas and Dylan had left to go and pick up Bishop, Maya had recruited Chiara and Riley to go on a run with her once Sophie had left them to head to work over at the bakery. It was one of the things she had set out to do regularly, as much as she could manage to be regular about it. Rosa had also started her doing yoga. She wasn't exactly hooked on it yet, but she was learning to do it right, and she guessed she didn't hate it… Rosa had already gotten Willow into it a few months back, so now it would be the three of them, or as Rosa would say it 'the five of us.'

Willow was two months ahead of her, of course, and Maya had often found herself just watching her as she progressed, like she was a test subject, telling her what _she'd_ go through before long. It wouldn't be the same, she knew, but it couldn't be _so_ different that it didn't compare. The two of them already hung out a lot, but since Halloween, since Maya had found out about the baby, it had become something else. They were both about to be mothers together. Their children would grow up together… near enough to growing up together anyway. In a few months, she would be with Lucas and their baby in Austin, while Willow, Lion, and their baby would be here in Houston… But it was two hours. They could and they had done that drive plenty of times. It was well worth the time.

Chiara and Riley had decided to make a detour to see Sophie at the bakery. Maya pointed out that there was little point to their running if they would just go and have cupcakes when they were done, but they declared this specifically gave them permission.

"Not falling for that logic," she shook her head. "I'll see you at home then."

About as soon as the door had shut behind her, she had made her way up the stairs and gone into the shower. Lucas may have had his 'time alone' with the sprout talking to her belly while she read, but she had this. She could relax, and breathe, feel soothed…

Once she got out of the shower, throwing on her current favorite PJs, she made quick work of detangling her hair before grabbing one of her textbooks from her room and heading down to lie on the couch and enjoy for once the peace and quiet of being the sole one of their six roommates in the house.

She had read about half a page by the time the doorbell rang. _Spoke too soon, _she thought, getting up with a sigh, walking barefoot over to the door and opening it to find herself standing face to face with her birth father. Kermit stood there, on the front step, with a large, hand drawn cardboard box weighted in his arms. And she just stared at him, transfixed.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	13. The One Who Left and the One Who'll Stay

_Chapter 13_  
_The One Who Left and the One Who'll Stay_

Time had dissolved… It had ground to a halt. Maya stood at the door, staring back at her birth father, stood on their doormat, with a large cardboard box perched in his arms. She couldn't seem to put any kind of thought together for who knew how long. Her heart drummed in her chest, the only thing she could hear herself thinking being 'what's he doing here, what's he doing here, what's he doing here…' But then she could see the box in his hands, see the drawings on the front of it, on the top, and the words traced by her siblings. _Happy birthday!_ These were her presents, delivered not by some mailman or delivery person but by Kermit. Had he really flown all this way just to…

He was looking at her. He wasn't saying a word, but he was looking at her, looking… Her hand went to her belly, feeling a rise of protection for her unborn child as they stood there, father and daughter, and he could see the evidence of her own impending motherhood. Was this what had brought him here?

Her voice returned at this, breaking her from the initial surprise to look up at his face again.

"What are you doing here?" It was what came from her, the first thing she could think to say, the thing she cared to know more than minding her manners and saying hello. She didn't know if she'd hoped to destabilise him, to rattle him. To his credit, he didn't look entirely thrown; he'd expected it.

"I, uh… The kids put this together for you," he showed the box, "Abigail put in a couple of things, too. And I… I did, too," he revealed.

"They don't have post offices in New York anymore?" she asked. She was trying to keep her voice even, trying not to dip into that pool of venom that sat alongside all those feelings he had cultivated in her heart over time, but it was stronger than her right now.

"They do," her father bowed his head. The box looked heavy in his arms, but he didn't make any move to come in or even put it down. "But I… I heard… That is, I saw, on your band's site, about… about…" His eyes drifted to her belly again. She crossed her arms over herself.

"So, you know I'm having a baby," she stated, shrugging her shoulders. _So what do you expect?_ "You didn't want to be my dad, what makes you think you'll get to be grandpa all of a sudden?" _Baby's already got two of those, and they'll be the best he or she could ask for._

"Maya, I…" Kermit shook his head.

"No," she cut him off. "I'm not a kid anymore, okay? Do you even know what you did to me, not being there? Not just leaving, but showing me time and again that I didn't matter to you. You came and saw me once, because it was convenient, because something brought you to Texas. Not _me_, your _daughter_, but some friend who was getting married. Even before all that though, you left us, me and Mom, and you went and became _their…_"

She stopped, had to catch her breath, had to collect herself. No, she wasn't going to bring them into this. Sam, Cara, Eliza, Wyatt… It wasn't their fault that he was a better father, that he was a father at all, to them and not to her…

"Are you…" Kermit balanced the box on to one arm so he could reach out to her. She flinched and stepped back.

"I'm fine, I… You should go," she sniffled, looking anywhere but at his face anymore.

"Maya…"

"No, I don't have to do this anymore. I get to decide now, and I decide that I'm not going to get pulled into this again. I have my brothers and my sisters and they've got me, but that's where it stops. I don't want you near my baby any more than I want you near me, so just…"

She'd been so caught up in telling him off, she didn't realize anything was wrong until all of a sudden the box slid out of his arms and landed with an even thud, even as he seemed to start to sway and lose his footing. Her reflexes were what managed to slow his collapse, as her arms shot out just in time to get a hold of his shoulders.

"Dad!" she heard herself shout, like everything in her brain had been locked out except for the basic and unavoidable truth that he had given her life and been half her world for those first formative years. Now he was laid out on her doorstep, and there was a rush of panic in her, of helplessness. She was the only one here, she couldn't even move him… She looked around for a moment, hoping one of her neighbors might have been around. What had just happened, what… What was she supposed to do?

She stuck her bare feet into her boots, sitting by the door, before grabbing her keys and her phone and moving around to check on him.

"D… Kermit," she called, crouching over him. She could just see his chest rising and falling, he wasn't… But he wasn't conscious, and he had to… "Okay, okay…" she breathed, pulling herself together and dialling 911. "It's my… my father, he just collapsed, he's unconscious, I-I don't know what's wrong with him," she told the woman who answered. "Uh, he…h-he's thirty-nine, I… No, I mean I don't know, we're not close, he just showed up on my doorstep, we were talking and then he… Yeah, okay…" she nodded when the woman said they would send help. She gave her the address.

The woman stayed on the line with her as she waited. She did as she was told, doing her best to look after Kermit. She ended up telling the operator about the fact that she was four months pregnant. This was all so much, and she couldn't help worrying that the stress might harm her sprout… _Breathe… breathe…_

By the time the ambulance had arrived, their neighbors across the street had spotted Maya and Kermit outside the house. They'd come hurrying over, asking what had happened. She couldn't say much more than what she'd already told the woman on the phone, except that help was coming. That was when they'd started hearing the sirens, as the ambulance neared and finally pulled up. Maya stepped back with her neighbors. Mrs. Shaw looked at her, noticing her hair was wet, and she let herself through the open door to get Maya's coat and hat for her.

"Thanks, I…" she blinked, putting them on. The gesture had called up one thought and another, first _Mom…_ and then _Lucas…_ He was in Austin today, why did it have to be today, why… She looked to her phone, gripped in her hands, and then she was calling her mother. She needed to talk to her first, needed help to collect herself before she called Lucas or else he'd assume the worst and…

"Hey, baby girl, I was just…"

"Mom…" she cut in, her voice trembling.

"Maya, what's wrong?" Katy's voice changed at once.

"I'm fine, it's not me, it's… Kermit, he's here, he just showed up and…"

"What? Let me talk to him, I'll…"

"I can't. We were talking, o-or I was… I was talking, and then he passed out."

"What?"

"There's paramedics now, I think they're taking him to the hospital. I don't understand, I…"

"Maya, take a deep breath," her mother told her, and she did as told. "Okay, keep going like that, yeah? Look, I'll get there as soon as I can, you guys just…"

"They're not here," Maya cried, taking another breath. "The Shaws are with me, but there's no one else. Mom, Lucas is in Austin, he's at the house, with Dylan and Bishop, I…" _I need him here…_

"Alright, I'll stop over there on the way. Do you want me to call him?"

"No, I… He'll want to hear my voice," she shook her head. _And try not to freak out when he hears it._ "I have to go, they're loading him into the ambulance now…"

"I'll see you soon, baby girl, alright? Just…"

"Breathe, I know…" After they hung up, he thanked the Shaws and went with the paramedics, sitting in the back. They insisted on checking her out, which she suspected was partly in an effort to quell some of her fears. She was okay… they were okay… As they drove off and she started to find some of her normal breath again, she knew what she needed to do. She put in another call.

"Yup?" Dylan answered, the way he would when he didn't even check the caller ID.

"Hey, don't say my name just yet, okay?" There was a pause.

"Yeah?" he replied.

After the long drive into Austin, just _getting_ to the house before they could so much as start getting any work done, the process had been a bit slow to start, but eventually Lucas and the guys had gotten the ball rolling. They were going to tackle one room at a time, that was the way to do it, wasn't it? Starting upstairs, they didn't know how much they'd get done today, but as much as they could get done and still have it in them to drive back…

"H-hey, Lucas?" Dylan stood just inside the door as Lucas and Bishop were returning from having carried an old dresser down from his father's old room and to the shed where they'd been storing everything they would try to donate or sell. He had a weird look on his face. Maybe he was a bit prone to jump to conclusions these days, but still it didn't mean he didn't strongly feel this had to do with Maya, or… "So, just to be clear, Maya's fine, the baby's fine," Dylan started, and Lucas tensed at once, like he already had one leg inside his car. "It's her father."

"Shawn?" Lucas blinked.

"No, the other one, the… you know," Dylan gave a dismissive gesture. _Kermit._

"What about him?"

"Apparently he showed up at the house? And then he just keeled over. They're on their way to the hospital now, here," he held out his phone. Lucas all but leapt for it.

"Maya?" he spoke as soon as he had it pressed to his ear.

"Lucas…" she replied, and he could hear it all in that one utterance of his name, how scared she was, how hearing his voice had just given her what little comfort she had been seeking. "It all happened so fast, I don't know how he… He hasn't woken up, and I…" She let out a frustrated sort of sigh, warbled through tears and making him guess she was wiping at her eyes right about now. "He flew all this way to bring my presents from Sam and the others, and because he found out about the baby, and I just let him have it, told him I didn't want him around, and then he dropped… Did I do this to him?" her voice grew small. He had never felt those two hours so painfully. If they ever needed any further incentive to move back and be close to their families…

"Maya, this wasn't you, okay? I'm going to come and meet you, I just need to…"

"No, I don't want you driving right now," she cut in with renewed decisiveness. "My mother's on her way to you now, she'll drive you."

"Maya…"

"No driving," she pressed on. "Do it for me, I'm stressed enough as it is without thinking you could rush to get here and have an accident, okay?" He let out a breath.

"Alright, fine, I'll wait for your mother," he vowed. "But you let me know if there's any changes."

"I will," she promised.

Katy arrived a little over ten minutes later. Lucas just jogged over and got into the passenger seat, and then they were off. Dylan and Bishop would stay here and keep working through the house and then they'll drive his car back to Houston.

The drive was as tense as they would have expected. Lucas and Katy didn't speak much after they'd exchanged information from their respective calls. They only wanted to get to Houston as soon as possible, get to Maya. Shawn was back home with the little kids, and from what Katy told Lucas, he only did so out of a need to keep the twins and MJ as untouched by whatever was going on if it could be helped. He wanted to be with his daughter as much as the rest of them. The only break in the silence after this had come from a call Lucas received from Riley.

She had returned to the house with Chiara after their pit stop at the bakery, only to find an empty house and a box addressed to Maya with a crushed corner like it had been dropped. They had been visited by the Shaws, who told them about Kermit, and the ambulance… Lucas told her about how he and Katy were driving back as they spoke, and that Maya should be at the hospital now with her birth father. He didn't have to say much more. The girls would go to her and stay with her until they made it back to Houston.

When they had arrived at the hospital, Maya had trailed after the gurney and stood nearby as a doctor and a couple of nurses moved around her father. She felt so confused, helpless. They would ask her questions, but she couldn't answer, how could she? The man was as much a stranger to her in a lot of ways as any of them were. Finally, she'd had the presence of mind to call up Abigail in New York. When she told her about what had happened, Abigail had asked to speak to the doctor. Something in her voice was so solid in the face of this news, and it took some time but Maya eventually understood…

Maya wasn't aware of any situation that might have caused this fall, but Abigail knew, which meant it had been going on… What was wrong with him? _Something_ was wrong with him. Whatever she'd told the doctor, his whole demeanor had changed, like someone had rearranged the pieces of a jagged puzzle and suddenly the image was revealing itself. He mentioned something about having some files sent over, and he'd taken down Abigail's number, and then he'd hung up and given Maya her phone back.

"I'll be back to see you later," he told her, and then he was gone. Maya blinked, looking back to the nurses. They weren't saying anything. They just finished doing a couple things, settling Kermit in, examining him, and then they were gone.

Under normal circumstances, she would have gone after them, she wouldn't have let them out of her sight until someone told her what was going on, but now… It was just too much all at once, she was overwhelmed, and all she could do was pull a nearby chair up to the side of the bed and have a seat. She pressed a hand to her belly, breathed deep, breathed, and breathed…

She'd been sitting like that for a few minutes, she couldn't say how many, when she looked up and realized Kermit's eyes were open. She stood up and moved to where he could see her. His whole face seemed to change. _Relief…_ He reached up his hand, and in that moment she didn't have it in her to be angry. It would have been cruel not to take his hand, and for all he'd done to her, he hadn't made her like that. So she took hold of those fingers. His grasp wasn't so strong, and it rattled something from her she couldn't name.

"You're in the ER," she told him. "You fell, you passed out, so I called an ambulance." He nodded, he understood. "This isn't new to you, is it?" she slowly asked. He shook his head. "What's going on?" He looked up to the ceiling, quietly breathing for a moment. "Are you sick? Are you…"

"I was…" he told her, giving a small shrug. "A few times. I've been told I was doing better, but that only accounts for so much. I'm not going to bounce back a hundred percent like before."

"How long have you…" she started to ask, but then there was a memory and she closed her eyes. "That Christmas, Sam and the others were supposed to visit, you cancelled…" He nodded. She took a few deep breaths, wiped at her eyes, looking around for a moment, unable to meet his eye. "Do they know? Sam, Cara…"

"Sammy… He knows, not the others. Please…"

"I won't tell them, I…" She sighed, making herself look at him again. "You get that this is a lot."

"I do. I never meant to drop all that on you today, I wasn't even sure you'd let me through the door, not that… not that I would have held it against you if you didn't."

"I should hope not, I…" she felt those old feelings surge again, and she closed her eyes to try and push them down again. This wasn't the time… or it was, but…

"When I saw… about the baby… I was already trying to work up the courage, to… make contact. I told you, there's something in that box, from me. After everything, the illness, I just… I needed to take a chance, I needed to make things right with you… if you'd let me. And if you didn't, well, I'd have that coming, but at least I would have tried. But the baby…" his voice softened, and there was a glistening at his eyes. He was welling up, and damn it if it didn't get her started, too. Next thing I knew, I was buying a plane ticket. I couldn't do it over the phone or the computer, I had to see you. I came for _you_, Maya," he squeezed her hand, and she was blinking against tears. "I think about that time I saw you last, in Austin… and I'm so ashamed, you have to know. You don't owe me anything, okay? If you want me gone, I'm gone, I just… I'm trying… It won't make up for the last fifteen years, but I'm trying."

For about half a minute after that neither of them spoke. There were beeps from machines near and far, the rumble of voices beyond the area where they'd settled him, and there were her sniffles… Finally, she looked at him again.

"I'm not leaving you on your own out here, alright?" she told him. He nodded. "For now, I'll just… call it a truce. It's not one thing or another thing. I'm here."

"Thank you," Kermit told her.

"I called Abigail," she informed him. "I don't know if she's trying to fly over right now, you can call her yourself," she offered out her phone. "My mother's on her way, too, with my fiancé, I…"

"You're getting married," her father had this small smile on him, and she couldn't help but see how his face reminded her of her own in that moment.

"Yeah," she told him, showing the ring on the chain around her neck. It sort of felt awkward now to bring it up with him, with how categorical she was about the fact that he wasn't invited. He didn't inquire, and she didn't say anything about it.

"You should sit," he released his hold on her hand and indicated the chair. She might have said she was fine standing, but right now she wasn't going to take any chances of exerting herself.

"Did you just come from the airport or do you have a room somewhere? Did you drive?"

"I took a cab from the hotel."

"I… I can go, if you want some of your things with you. Or I can send someone…"

Before he could reply, a rush of movement made her look up. Riley and Chiara were coming toward her, and she stood at once, moments before being enveloped in her oldest friend's arms. Maya hugged her back, thinking surely this only came second to the moment she had learned Riley had moved to Texas, too. She had needed her, too.

"The Shaws told us what happened," Riley told her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Maya smiled. They pulled apart and Riley looked to the bed.

"Hi…" She didn't know how to behave around him any more than Maya had done. She'd barely ever had any contact with the man, but she knew what he represented in her best friend's life and that was enough.

"And that's Chiara, another of my roommates," Maya pointed to her.

"Hello," Chiara spoke, and by the awkward tone in her voice, Maya guessed she'd been getting an earful or two from Riley on the way over from the house. "We, ah… we brought you a cupcake from the bakery," she held up a small pink box. "Sophie insisted. It was before we knew…" Maya gladly took it. Now that everything had slowed down just a bit, she felt like she could devour a whole box of these. She looked to her father, who gestured as though to say 'go ahead,' guessing she'd felt uneasy about eating this in front of him. How had this come so easily when all of an hour ago she was spitting fire at him? She guessed it was hard to be upset when he was lying there looking so on the weak side.

The cupcake was a distant memory of about an hour by the time Maya looked up, like some instinct in her had flexed, and she spotted Lucas and her mother making their way across the ER and toward them. She got up from her chair at once, taking what felt like three steps before Lucas had crossed what should have been three times that. In the next moment, she was in his arms, and the tension she'd carried beneath her skin from the moment she'd known she needed to call him finally just fell away. Going by the way he held on to her, he'd been having some of that tension, too. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and held it there for something like twenty seconds before they could look up to one another's face and he stroked her cheek.

"I know you're probably tired of people asking…"

"I'm okay, we're okay… Better now," she smiled at him and he smiled back. She watched him turn his eyes up to the man in the hospital bed, and she could see how, if not for their present location, he might have given the man a piece or five of his mind. "Lucas," she whispered, and he looked back to her, eyes softening again. "Truce," she told him, and that was all he needed to know. He let out a breath.

"Sir," he tipped his head. "Lucas Friar, I'm…"

"I know," Kermit nodded slowly. "It's nice to meet you." Maya and Lucas both turned to look at Katy as she stepped forward.

"Kermit," she greeted her ex. In that instant, it was hard to forget she had known him the longest of all of them, that of all the hurt he'd caused, she'd been the first to feel any of it.

"Hello, Katy," he replied, with the look of someone who knew he was happier to see someone than to be seen by them. "This wasn't exactly how I thought I…"

"What are you doing in Texas, Kermit?" she asked.

"Mom," Maya spoke first. Katy looked at her. "He's sick," she told her, her tone telling plainly what her words didn't. Lucas looked down to Maya in surprise, while Katy turned to her ex with stunned eyes.

"It's been on and off for a long while now," Kermit admitted. "It was supposed to be 'off' right about now, but after what happened earlier… I don't know."

"Damn it, Kermit…" Maya thought she heard mother mumble under her breath. "What did the doctor say?" she asked now, out loud.

"Not much," Maya was the one to reply. "They said they were trying to get in touch with his doctor in New York, we haven't seen him again since."

"Yeah, we'll see about that," Katy went to move off but paused in front of her daughter. Lucas let her go and Maya folded herself into her mother's arms. "You okay, baby girl?" she asked quietly.

"Loaded question," Maya replied.

"Right," Katy rubbed at her back. "Maybe you should go home for now, get some rest. I'll stay with him." Maya hesitated, looking to her father.

"Go, it's alright," he told her. "Thank you for staying. You have no idea how much it means to me that you did, even if on a truce." Maya looked to him, to her mother, to her Lucas. Finally, she stepped back up to the bed.

"I… I'll come back, okay? If they let you out of here before tomorrow… you can come to the house. We can talk… I'll even let you get a word in this time." That made him chuckle.

"I'd like that."

"Right… okay… Later," she touched his hand. He turned it, clasped her fingers for a moment.

"Later."

Moving off hand in hand with Lucas, she let out a few deep breaths. She'd already sent Riley and Chiara back on home. They'd wanted to stay with her, but it wouldn't have done much, and besides… It had felt to her like it needed to be the two of them alone, until her mother and Lucas had arrived. Now that she was leaving, she could really feel she'd be dozing off before they even left the hospital parking lot if she let it happen.

"Sorry I had to pull you away from the house," she told Lucas as they got in the car. He shook his head. _Don't worry about it._ "I didn't want to worry _you_," she pointed out.

"It really doesn't take much these days," he admitted, recalling how endless the drive back had felt. She reached out for his hand, brought it to lie over her belly. It made him smile.

"In a perfect world, we'd feel something right about now," she sighed, setting both hands over his. "How about it, Sprout? Anything? Mama really needs it today… No pressure." They waited for a few seconds. "Didn't think so. That's alright."

"Home?" Lucas asked.

"Nook, then home?" she countered and he smiled. Deal.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	14. Twenty-One

_Chapter 14_  
_Twenty-One_

The box was waiting up in their room when Maya and Lucas came home from the hospital. With everything that had happened since she'd last seen it, Maya had completely forgotten about the presents from her siblings and their mother. _And our father…_

"I should call Abigail back, see if she's heard anything else, if she's on her way…"

"Sure… yeah…" Lucas replied. She turned back to look at him with a knowing smile.

"You're going to feel better if I sit over there and put my legs up, aren't you?"

"I mean, it can't hurt," he declared, going for an innocent face he didn't completely pull off. She went and stacked up her pillows before sitting on the bed. She let out a sigh as her back pressed into the pillows. Alright, fine, so she did kind of feel better.

"While we're at it, I'm kind of thirsty…" she told him, making something of a show of joining her hands over her belly and cranking up a bit of a grin.

"Play this up all you like, you relaxing relaxes _me_, so…" he told her as he headed out of the room.

"Maybe check on a dinner ETA while you're at it?" she called after him as she pulled out her phone.

She let out a breath, and another… Ever since Lucas had arrived back from Austin, it had been easier to let her mind wander back, away from everything earlier with her father, but then it would all roll back in and she would feel the way she did, sitting in the back of that ambulance, stressed and confused. It took her another minute, but she finally called Abigail again.

She had always gotten along very well with Kermit's wife. From the start, she had never questioned Maya's preferences where it came to her contact with her birth father – none at all – and instead focused on facilitating her children's contact with their older half-sister. Today was without a doubt the first time they'd had an actual conversation primarily regarding the man who connected their lives. Abigail gave her an overall rundown of the situation with Kermit's illness, until she had a much better idea of what had been going on all this time, including the one time where they had come close to losing him.

Lucas had returned with a glass of water and found her with a heavy look on her face, which he soon surmised to have been brought on by what Abigail was telling her. He sat on his side of the bed, facing her, and held on to the glass as she finished talking to the woman and finally hung up. She sat there quietly tracing her thumb along her darkened screen before reaching out for the water.

"What'd she say?" he asked.

"A lot," Maya frowned to herself. She drank down about half the glass before speaking again. "She's going to wait to hear more from the doctors before deciding what to do about flying out. She doesn't want to freak out the kids. They don't know except for Sam."

"Wow…" he sighed.

"Yeah," she bowed her head for a moment, thinking about those happy little faces. "He'll pull through though," she nodded, sounding to herself like she wasn't just trying to convince him or her siblings kept in the dark. "I don't… How am I supposed to feel about this?" she asked, looking back to Lucas. "After everything he's done… and _not_ done, I…" she frowned.

But then she thought back to when they'd been in the ER, before the others had shown up, everything he'd told her. He was trying, he wanted to make amends, he recognized his faults… _Dad…_

"Whatever you feel, whatever you choose, that's the right one," Lucas offered.

"Great, I'll let you know as soon as I figure that one out," she closed her eyes, pinching at the bridge of her nose for a moment before opening her eyes again. She spotted the box, sitting right behind him. "Can you bring that over here," she pointed. He turned around and stood. When she set her glass on the night stand and crossed her legs, he set the box in front of her. Bringing her a pair of scissors, he sat back down and watched as she dragged the blade down the length of the tape and it split open.

"Hope nothing's damaged," he prodded the crushed corner.

"Oh…" she blinked. She hadn't even thought of that. _Nothing I can do about that now…_ Taking in the various drawings though, recognizing each of her siblings' styles and preferences, she could sort of forget about that corner for a while. She just wished they could be here with her. _Maybe they will be, if things get worse… But I'd prefer they didn't…_ "Woah…" she smiled, getting a look of the various wrapped packages inside the box.

"Someone drew a legend," Lucas pointed to one of the flaps. They looked to each other, and they nodded as they both thought it. _Sam. Definitely Sam._

_Sam. Cara. Sam & Cara. Eliza. __Wyatt. Eliza & Wyatt. Mom. Mom…_

"Dad," she read out, as her finger had reached the end of the line. She could see the corresponding box sitting right on top, and she picked it up, turned it in her hands and looked to Lucas. "He told me this would be in here." She looked back down to the small box, neatly wrapped in a bright and flowery paper. "I… I'll hold on to it for now. He's here, so… Maybe I'll open it when we see each other again." It was either that or maybe not actually opening it at all… She wasn't sure. So, for now, she set the present next to her water glass.

One by one she had pulled out and unwrapped the presents, giving no mind to the fact that her birthday wasn't for a few days still. She'd had a long day, and really her siblings would understand. Each time she picked something up both she and Lucas would look to see if the object looked to have suffered from the fall. So far, everything was coming out fine.

Maya smiled and wrapped the shawl given to her by Abigail around Lucas' shoulders before chuckling when she saw the DVD box set also from her… stepmother, technically? She gasped and laughed at the sight of the fluffy purple 'rock star' bunny from Wyatt, giving the stuffed little thing a quick squeeze before presenting it to Lucas. He smiled and held on to it as she kept going. The joint Eliza/Wyatt gift of a squishy ball would soon be passed to him, too, and he would keep on absently squishing it as this unboxing continued.

Eliza had also gifted her with some pencils and markers and notebooks, always appreciated. They had been on the opposite side of the box from the crushed corner, so there was less concern as to their possibly being damaged than the gift from Cara, which was found to have been well in the corner in question.

"Oh…" Maya breathed, noticing the tear in the paper and the corner of a metallic looking box peeking out of the tear. Ripping back the paper, the box was revealed to be shaped like a book, golden-edged. _A History of New York._ Cara and her love of boxes… "I think it's okay," she declared, inspecting the edges. There was the smallest of marks on the side which had hit the ground, but on the whole the box was fine. When she opened it, Maya found a thumb drive, nestled in paper. She held it up for Lucas to see what it said.

"Maya twenty-one," he read, smiling. "A song for you."

"Can you…" she pointed to the laptop on her desk, and he was already halfway up to go and get it for her. When he sat back the way he'd been sitting, she gave him a look like 'what are you doing?' before tipping her head to the spot next to her.

"Right, sorry," he came to sit next to her so they could watch together. After she'd connected the drive and pulled up the video which was the only thing on it, they were quickly treated to the appearance of Cara in all her glory. "She really looks so much like you sometimes."

"I know, she… oh!" Maya sat up and touched his arm when her sister held up a guitar and started to play.

"I didn't know she…"

"That makes two of us," she smiled, recognizing the song as one of TXNY's. This only went as far as the music though. The words had been rewritten, as Cara went about listing out the things she loved about her big sister.

Maya tried so hard to keep her emotions in check, which was easier said than done these days, but it would have been near impossible even without the pregnancy messing around with her _not_ to tear up at Cara's composition. But then, somewhere in the middle of all this, the memory of their father out at the hospital came and wedged itself in, making Maya think about that little face and what would happen to it when her sister learned that their father was sick, and then her emotions took a sharp swerve.

"Hey, hey…" Lucas paused the video and put his arms around his bride to be.

"I'm okay, I'm just… I don't know anymore…" she cried. "I am no longer at the wheel of my emotions here, remember?" She tried to reassert herself, tried to ask herself why she should be upset over Kermit, after all he'd done, but that only made it worse. "I'll be fine," she finally said, which she guessed was more accurate than 'I'm okay,' because clearly she wasn't.

After she had managed to watch the rest of the video, still with Lucas' arm around her, she'd gone through the remainder of the presents in the box. These didn't spare her from a reprise, as she found the photo album compiled by Sam and Cara, filled cover to cover with pictures of her siblings from the time they'd been born up to now, including several images that featured her, in the time since she'd come into their lives. After that, she'd been treated by Sam's offering, which was a comic book he had created all on his own, featuring his ever-improving art and maybe a bit of calligraphic assistance from Cara.

"Nothing broken," Lucas declared, as the empty box was moved to the floor. Maya looked to the nightstand, the one unopened gift. She reached over and picked it up, turning it about in her hands. For such a small box, not even all that heavy, it felt as though it packed the biggest punch.

Even after she'd set it back on the nightstand, it felt like she couldn't stop looking at it, or reaching to hold it again. Finally, she'd put it in the drawer and gone back downstairs. They would be having dinner soon anyway.

They'd just finished eating when the doorbell rang and they were joined by Katy Hart. They were keeping Kermit overnight, though by all accounts he should be discharged in the morning. As Riley made Maya's mother a plate and brought it over, the woman turned to her daughter.

"If you need me to stay here tonight, I…"

"Only if you don't want to drive back tonight," Maya shook her head. It would have been easy to say otherwise. Her mother wouldn't have argued and she would have stayed, but if she was honest, Maya didn't need her to be there, now that things had calmed down, and she was thinking about her siblings, back in Austin, who'd be wondering where their mother was. So, after she'd eaten her late dinner, Katy had hugged her daughter and gotten back on the road, promising to let her know when she arrived.

Lucas had been concerned that Maya might not be able to sleep that night, but all in all she did drift off before he did. There was one point in the middle of the night where he woke up and found her awake already, holding what he could just make out to be her father's presents in her hands.

"This thing's straight out of the Telltale Heart without the murder part," she sighed, forcing herself to put it back and get back spoon-side in his arms. "Just knowing he's in the city right now, at the hospital, I just… I can't stop thinking about it, about… him."

The next morning, they woke up and almost immediately went about getting dressed, the better to go to the hospital and pick up Kermit when the time came. This didn't happen until just after lunch time, but when it did, they took off at once. He waited for them on his bed in the ER, dressed up and ready to go. He looked alright, all things considered, maybe a little tired, but as he'd just spent the night in the hospital, surrounded by constant noise, activity, and nurses checking on him, this was not so much of a surprise.

"We can drive you back to your hotel, if you want to get some rest," Maya offered as they got in the car. There was still this part somewhere in her that felt as though she needed to throw up a shield, to guard herself as he sat there, like at any moment he would do something and prove exactly why he couldn't be trusted. But then she'd look at him, and another part, the one governed by common sense and the things she saw with her own two eyes, said that despite all other indications… the truce should be allowed to hold.

"No, it's alright," Kermit told her. "Unless you'd prefer to…" he started to ask, and she realized it might have sounded like she was attempting to dodge having him at their house.

"No, it's alright," she cut in, taking a moment when she realized she'd repeated what he'd said, and in much the same tone, which made it plain that they were both of them feeling a bit all over the place about this conversation they were aiming to have. "Did you, uh… Did you talk to Abigail?"

"I did," he replied. "Soon as I feel up to flying again, I'll be heading back to New York."

Their roommates had cleared out after they'd been told that Kermit was coming out of the hospital and would be brought back to the house. It would be easier if they had the place to themselves, or that was what they hoped at least. When they did pull up to the house, Maya stole a brief look to Lucas, and he understood it well enough. She was nervous about what would happen, what would be said. He tipped his head to her, and she understood _this_, too. She wouldn't be on her own this time. Whether she wanted him in the room with her and her birth father or not, he would be nearby for whatever she needed after that.

Walking in, they were soon accosted by Trix and Lou, who crowded around Maya's feet before becoming aware of a stranger's presence. They seemed to appraise Kermit for a moment.

"Hey, I've heard about you two," he extended his hands to pet them both at once, smiling as they warmed up to him. The two of them were generally easy to please, but it still felt good to see them respond to him favorably. When they went to sit in the living room, the dogs were quick to climb up and sit near Maya. They'd been doing that more and more over the last few weeks.

"Can I bring you anything to drink… or eat?" Lucas asked, in what Maya would often refer to as 'the spectral presence of Melinda Friar.'

"That's alright, thanks. I was served lunch just before I called you," Kermit explained. Lucas turned to Maya, partly to see if _she_ wanted anything, though mostly to see if she wanted him to stay or go.

"I'm good," she told him, with a discreet nod. _Sit._ So, he went to take a seat.

"The house is great," Kermit commented, looking around.

"Yeah, we really lucked out. There were five of us when we first moved in, now there's six of us with Chiara. Not sure what they'll do once Lucas and I move out at the end of the semester," Maya added, turning a look to her fiancé before addressing her father again. "We're moving back to Austin, to be closer to our parents when the baby comes." She was made momentarily conscious of the exclusion she'd created in saying this, as much as she was reminded that she wouldn't even have hesitated all of twenty-four hours ago.

"Your mom said you're due in June?" her father asked, looking in no way slighted.

"Yeah, June 11th," she told him, her hand going to her belly on reflex. "Lucas' mom already calls the baby her Junebug, we're not sure what she'll do if it comes a couple weeks early," she smiled, looking back to find him also biting back a laugh.

"You were early," Kermit recalled, regaining their attention.

"I was," she nodded. Her mother had told her as much once, when she'd inquired about the day when she was born.

"We both thought we were so ready, and then your mother went into labor, and suddenly we felt so out of our depth, just a couple of kids…" he chuckled for a moment, sobering again when the inevitable outcome of that happy day, his departure, his abandonment, trickled back into the memory. "But we loved you from the moment we first saw you."

The way he sat there, fussing with the end of the hospital bracelet still on his arm, she could feel the nerves coming off of him. Much as he looked ready to accept whatever she said or did in response to him, it didn't make him any less nervous. _She_ made _him_ nervous. And of all the impulses it could have created in her, the one that won out surprised her maybe most of all.

"You should stay here until you go back to New York," she told him. He blinked, looking back at her. She could feel Lucas giving her a surprised look of his own. "Instead of spending money on a hotel," she shrugged. "We don't really have a spare room, but the couch is pretty comfortable, or maybe Dylan would let you have his room."

"Maya, you don't have to…" he shook his head.

"No, but I want to," she insisted. "And then…" What she realized now was that she needed to do this. She needed to take a chance, foolish as it once might have seemed. She needed to be able to trust in people, in this case trust the feeling that he might really have made a turn. "Well, you could stick around until my birthday. We're not doing anything big, but you…"

"Missed a lot of them?" he offered, not as a joke but a fact.

"But you don't have to miss this one, if you want…"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Kermit replied, and he looked so happy inside, she had to smile.

When he excused himself to go to the bathroom, Maya and Lucas watched her father go before turning back to one another. She let out a breath and he moved to sit next to her.

"Are you sure about this?"

"It feels right," she told him. "I didn't think it would, but it does. I think… I need to see it through." He was looking at her with those Huckleberry eyes, and she knew what he was thinking. What if he pulled a fast one on her again, what if he hurt her again? "If he does anything to deserve it, I will let you go all Texas Friar on him," she promised, which just made him smile. "That's not the face, no one's going to be threatened by that," she scolded.

"Couldn't look mean right now if I tried," he told her.

"That just won't do," she shook her head with a smile.

X

To say that the next few days didn't feel very unusual would have been a bold-faced lie. For the first two or three of them, whenever any one of the six roommates would run into Kermit, it would be as though they had forgotten he was staying with them until that exact moment. When Maya had texted them, that first day, to tell them that he would be staying – not only in Houston but in their house – for the next few days, they'd all behaved like she was she was joking. Riley especially, in true oldest friend fashion, had wanted to know if she was really serious, suggesting she may have officially gone loopy.

Dylan had indeed given up his room to Kermit, and it would get to feel like they all had to be on their best behavior while he was there, sort of guarded… Maya and Lucas had their room right across the hall from him, which only made them extra aware all the time. Whenever Maya would step out in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, she'd find herself stopping in the hall, remembering who was in that other room…

Even though Kermit _was_ staying with them, and even though both sides were stepping out of their comfort zones… or discomfort zones, maybe… there was still some difficulty, especially from Maya, to actually open up and share about this thing or that, about anything personal that was beyond the surface layer. They were definitely not at a stage yet where she felt she would hug him or let herself be hugged. She hadn't let him feel her bump either, and he hadn't asked if he could either, likely assuming she would have said no. Whether she _would_ say no, that was something she didn't know herself.

On the night before her birthday, she'd gone up to her room to look for one of her textbooks, only to stop when she spotted her father sitting on the edge of Dylan's bed, paging through one of his comics with an amused look on his face. When he spotted her out of the corner of his eye and looked up, he showed her the comic book.

"I mentioned I was curious and he said to feel free and check them out. Used to spend… most of my money on these growing up. Stopped reading them for a while, until Sammy got me starting up again."

"That's funny, I don't remember any comic books in the apartment when I was little," Maya blinked. She could still remember that old apartment, in the back of her mind, sometimes so much clearer than she ever expected to.

"Yeah, well, I… I sold my collection," he admitted after a beat. "We needed the money," he shrugged. He didn't need to explain, she understood. He and her mother had needed it, for her, when she was little.

"Oh…" she briefly bowed her head. "Did you have a lot?"

"Put it this way, I had to talk my sister into making sure our parents didn't throw them out after your mother and I moved in together, because we didn't have the space."

His sister, his parents… _My aunt, my grandparents…_ Thinking back, she had vague memories of a teenage girl hanging out with them sometimes, what was her name though? Was that her? As for grandparents, _his_ parents… She didn't even have an inkling at the back of her mind.

"Did they ever… Did I ever…" She wasn't sure how to ask. He knew what she meant and he sighed, thinking back.

"No," he shook his head regretfully. "When they heard Katy was pregnant, I was as good as moved out. They weren't going to raise you for me, so if we were going to keep you, then it wouldn't be under their roof. Trust me, you didn't miss much." All of a sudden, he was getting to look a whole lot better by comparison.

"Are they still…"

"They moved down to Florida a few years back," he nodded. "If Luna hadn't told me, I wouldn't even know. Haven't spoken to them in seventeen years."

"Luna…" she repeated, blinking. "I remember her, she… she'd take me out for ice cream, like every day for weeks in a row, and she'd do up my hair," she touched her head.

"She worked at the ice cream parlor," her father informed her with a smirk. "She used all her freebies on you."

"After you left, she stopped coming, too," Maya told him as _that_ came back to her, too.

"She was going away to college," Kermit told her. "And she did try to stay in touch for a while, but…" The way he hesitated to continue, she could guess. Her mother hadn't allowed it. If she was as upset as Maya knew her to have been, she could understand, with hindsight.

"And now?"

"Lives in Tucson with her girls," he pulled his phone from his pocket, found an image and held it out to her. The woman on picture had to be somewhere about early to mid thirties, and the family resemblance was absolutely there, in her and in the two small girls in the picture with her. "Ginny's six, and Sadie just turned three," he pointed them out. Her aunt, her cousins…

"Does she know I live out here? And about…" she looked down at herself.

"The where, yes, the baby, no. I'll give you her number though. She's been wanting to reach out for years, but well, the way things are between us, she didn't want to… intrude."

"That'd be great, thank you," Maya smiled, and Kermit smiled back. "I don't know how this is going to sound, but having you here these past few days, it… it hasn't sucked." He laughed.

"I can take that," he nodded. "Being here… has been everything I could never even have hoped for, and I… I really appreciate it," he vowed. She handed him back his phone as she went and sat next to him.

"Are you going to be okay to fly home after tomorrow? Because if you need a few more days, I mean…"

"Your friends have all been really nice to me, but I think Dylan deserves to have his bed back. And the other kids, they…" He caught the small smile on her face and gave a curious look.

"Nothing," she promised. It almost felt too cheesy to say that the way he'd fit her in as one of his, not just something separate, it had felt… kind of nice. "I should go, need to study a bit. Happy reading," she nodded to the comic books at his side.

"Thanks," he smiled.

The following morning, Maya was awakened by a ticklish sort of feeling. She opened her eyes to find Lucas attempting to ever so casually adorn her with a birthday tiara. He froze as she fixed him with a 'glare.'

"Come on, just give me that?" he showed her the tiara with the fuzzy yellow bits. She took it in her hands, looked at it for a moment, then reached up to slip it on to his head.

"Perfect," she smirked, bursting into giggles when he tipped his head back to see himself in the mirror on the closet door.

Kermit treated them to breakfast at the Nook that morning, Maya, and Lucas, and the rest of the roommates. It was the least he could do after they'd hosted him as they'd done. Maya found it hard not to chuckle at how Riley continued to appear hesitant to accept him as what he appeared, always ready to 'told-you-so' him the moment he'd make a turn, even though by now the rest of them looked in no way convinced that it would ever be the case.

They were expecting Katy and Shawn and the kids, along with the Friars, the Matthews, and several other guests later on, so, after they'd returned to the house, Maya had gone up to her nightstand and retrieved the wrapped present before going to find her father, down in the living room. She wanted a chance to see what was inside, with him, while the guests hadn't arrived yet. When he saw it in her hands, he sat up in wait. She undid the wrapping with some care, finding a small, worn box inside.

"Used to hide my money in that thing," Kermit told her. "There was a brick that came loose in our basement, the box fit inside…" Opening it up, she found a folded piece of paper. As she unfolded it out, she could see him staring at her. He hadn't expected to be sitting right next to her for this and it reignited his nerves.

_I know I've given you plenty of reasons to want to forget the past, and I have plenty of my own to want to do the same. But there are also the parts I would hold on to forever._

She'd read it in her head, but she could sort of hear his voice at the same time. She didn't know that she'd have understood just how true those words could be if he hadn't been here with her over this week just past. Under the paper, she found another thumb drive.

"Just a few things I… I thought you might like to have. You can wait until after I'm gone to look, or you don't have to either, whatever you decide."

"Got it," she nodded before looked back into the box. She paused. There was one more thing in there, another box, small, velvety. And she knew it. The memory felt like something that would tumble free unexpectedly, after something else would come dislodged, and you'd go 'oh, so _that's_ where that went.' She saw the velvet box and she knew what would be inside even before she opened it, which she did.

A silver guitar pick, mounted on a chain. There hadn't been a chain, or a hole to hold it, when she was little, but there had been the little thing, with its funny sort of whirly design on the front. Her father would keep it in the box like something precious, which she now realized it was. When she'd been four, five, six years old, she didn't know what fingerprints were, but now she did and, by the size of this one, she knew it was a child's fingerprint… hers… _I didn't even remember you played guitar, like me._

"Spent some of my comic money on that," Kermit revealed. "Your mother was not happy when I told her about it, but when she saw it she changed her mind. She also convinced me not to sell my guitar."

"You went and had yourself a fancy pick made and you were going to sell your guitar?" Maya asked, bemused.

"That's what your mother told me," Kermit laughed. "I would have been glad to have that as a reminder," he pointed to the pick. Maya stared at it for a moment before reaching for the clasp and undoing it, refastening it around her neck, where it came to rest just below her engagement ring.

"Looks good, yeah?" she looked at him. He looked like he might cry, so he just nodded. She didn't have to think about it now. She reached over, and she embraced him, locking her arms around his neck. Surprised as he was, he didn't hesitate to reciprocate and close his arms around her waist. "Starting to think 'baby bump' has a double meaning," she joked, as her bump kept bumping into him.

"I told your mother the same thing twenty-one years ago."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	15. Moon Over Arizona

_Chapter 15_  
_Moon Over Arizona_

After the incident with Kermit and the rush back to Houston, Maya had started to accompany Lucas whenever he'd head to Austin with some of the others to do some work on the house. Sure, it wasn't like _she_ had been the one rushed to the hospital, but neither of them wanted to run the risk that something else might happen where she needed him all of a sudden and he was two hours away. It had been two weeks now since Maya's birthday and since Kermit had gone back to New York, and both on the previous weekend and this weekend now, they had gone up to the house.

If it wasn't that it was still winter and too chilly to do so, she would have loved nothing more than to sit out front while the others worked. Instead, she settled for the seat they'd set up for her near the window, complete with foot rest. There she would sit and read or do work for class, sometimes switching it up with her baby books, or she'd start drawing… Sometimes, when she just wanted to put all that aside she would sink into a vortex of YouTube videos, anything from cute baby compilations to tutorials. By the end of the day, they would usually find her napping.

The change in schedule, taking them away from Houston from Friday night through Sunday night was not ideal as far as the loss in work hours, but the house needed to be made ready, and as much as he'd gotten offers from many others to come and do a lot of it for him, Lucas just couldn't accept it. In his mind, it needed to be him. He wanted to make the place ready, for Maya and him, for their Sprout. So, he did.

"Look what I found," he went down to find Maya at her window seat, where she'd been typing on the laptop propped up in her lap on a cushion. He showed her the old cigar box, on which the letters TJF were shakily carved. She set the laptop and cushion aside before taking it.

"Thomas… Joseph Friar?" she guessed, and he nodded. "So, to recap," she counted on one finger and the next, "Lucas Thomas, Thomas Joseph, and Joseph… What's your grandfather's middle name?"

"Nathaniel," Lucas replied confidently.

"And is that your great grandfather by any chance?" she smirked up at him. He nodded. "How far back does it go like that?"

"I'm not sure, I think just those, I think." She opened the box now, smiling when she saw what was inside.

"No way," she looked up at him. "You didn't read them, did you?" she asked, carefully thumbing through the envelopes addressed to this very house to Thomas Friar. It had been years, but the penmanship did not lie as to who had written the words. Letters, written by a young Melinda before she was a Friar herself.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he shook his head. "She would lecture me until the baby was in college," he nodded to the letters, making her chuckle. "Hold on to these for me?"

"Sure," she closed the box and set it at her side, on top of her books. "Hey, so, I've been thinking," she started, turning back to him. He sat down on the edge of her foot stool, then fully on after she took her feet down. "Ever since Kermit mentioned my aunt out in Tucson, I haven't been able to get her out of my head. Maybe next week, instead of coming up here we could sort of go out there and find her? I just… I'd really like to see her again, and I know she's wanted to see me again, too."

"Tucson," he considered this. "We'd have to fly out," he told her, figuring it would be a good half day if they went at it by car. "Are you sure you want to just go up to her door, no call, nothing? What if we show up and she's not there?"

"I know, I just… I don't know, I thought it would be nice to surprise her or something," she shrugged, sitting back in her chair, hand trailing the curve of her belly of nineteen weeks.

"Well… Might be nice to get away for a couple days," he told her. "We won't get many more chances after this." She smiled, leaning forward and setting her hands on his cheeks before laying a kiss on his lips, which he returned. As they pulled back, he let out a breath, setting both of his hands over the one she had on her belly. She knew what he was thinking. They had an appointment on Thursday afternoon. By the time they flew off to Arizona, they could well know if their little Sprout was a boy or a girl…

All through the next few days back in Houston, there were two things to keep Maya's mind occupied… Alright, there were many, _many_ things keeping her mind occupied, especially since she'd become pregnant, but these two seemed to hold the top spots without contest at the moment. The first was hers and Lucas' trip over to Tucson to find her Aunt Luna. They'd booked a flight, and a hotel room, with much the same timetable as their weekends in Austin to work on the house. They were leaving on Friday evening, returning two days later.

It was strange how thinking about this woman she hadn't seen in… fifteen years or so… only brought back more and more little memories, connecting so many disconnected flashes until she realized they had been connected to _her_. She actually kind of remembered the last time she'd seen her, remembered… how sad she looked, like she knew it would be the last time. It made Maya feel even worse to think she'd almost forgotten her as time had gone on.

And then there were the videos.

It had taken her a week before she finally made up her mind to plug that thumb drive in and see what it held. She'd been sitting by the window at the house, her first weekend up there with Lucas while he and the others worked and she was told to hang back. That wasn't so bad, especially as she'd gone and started to develop a bit of a clumsy streak in the days before that. She'd been sitting there for a while, and she hadn't been able to stop thinking about the drive ever since she'd felt it while fishing out a pen from her bag. When she'd become aware that she'd been stuck on the same page of her book for as long as it took her to watch Lucas, Sophie, and Shawn to carry out something like twenty boxes of old papers over to the minivan, she'd finally given in, taking the thumb drive and her headphones out.

Videos, so many of them, and the file names she quickly realized marked the dates, from the day she was born to… somewhere about when Kermit would have left them, she knew. She'd sort of figured that would be it, and still to see them all there, how many there were… It caught her off guard enough that she'd needed a moment to collect herself, to work up the nerve to actually play any one of those. She took a few deep breaths, like she wanted to ensure that the baby wouldn't feel how nervous she was, all the while collecting her peace through the press of her hand to that roundness growing ahead of her.

The first one she'd watched had been the very first one, from the day of her birth. She'd been so inescapably captivated, watching her parents, all of eighteen years old and now holding their baby girl in their arms. All the stories she'd heard from her mother over the years, and the ones from her father in recent weeks, were given to her now with video evidence. They were young, and a tiny bit terrified, but they loved her, right from the start.

To absolutely no one's surprise, it had left her in tears, bringing Lucas and her father and Sophie to her side. She'd assured them that she was fine, replaying the video by way of explanation. For them to see newborn Maya there on the screen had been the first thing to draw their attention, noting how small and cute she'd been. _Some things never change._ Seeing the young Katy and Kermit with their daughter had been something else. Both Lucas and Sophie were amazed to see them, see how young they'd been.

Maya couldn't help but look to Shawn, to see how he took in this whole image, of his wife, half a lifetime ago and then some, as a brand-new mother, side by side with the guy who'd left both her and that tiny girl behind for so many years. Maya had reached out her hand to take his, looking up at him as he looked down at her and giving him a smile. _You're my Dad, don't you forget it._

She'd spent the rest of that day watching one video after the next. She couldn't help it, had to keep going, like there was an answer she desperately needed to discover and somewhere in those videos she would find it if she just kept on looking. Did she even know the question she was trying to answer?

_Can I give him a chance? Will we seal this truce into reality? Will I let him into my child's life?_

Somewhere in those early videos, the girl had first appeared. Luna. _Aunt Luna._ She had been all of twelve years old when Maya was born, but when her brother had put the baby girl in her arms, she had held her like a pro. Seeing her now, the notion that stood out the most to her here was just that, for how many times she had been told she looked like her sister Cara, she almost felt like everyone had completely missed the mark. If there was a person who looked like Cara, it was her aunt. This girl here in the video could have _been_ Cara, copied and pasted…

The more videos she'd watched, Maya had seen the progression of many stories woven together. The evolution of her mother, her father, her young self, her aunt, and any relations among these players. Her mother and herself, this much she knew well enough, although it was no less interesting to see these beats in their lives she had no way to remember at all or with any real clarity. Their relationship may have evolved to a place where the two of them were as good together as they could hope to be, but she hadn't forgotten the time where it was something else, and as much as she could want to make it so those times were better, she just couldn't.

Seeing her mother in those videos, in the early years, seeing how happy they all were, in spite of the struggles that their situation put in their way… When they'd left the house that night, after she'd been watching the videos, and they'd gone back to the Hunter Hart house, she had just found her mother and wrapped her arms around her, thinking just how bad she must have felt, when it was just the two of them and Maya would say or do things that must have made her feel so sad…

She would look at her little self and think how different she seemed. Sure, she was a baby, and a toddler and a small child, but still she remembered seeing similar videos of some of her friends, and really, factoring for growth, there remained an inherent quality to them that was just… them. Little Maya felt so much different to Older Maya, though at the same time… maybe if she interpreted it all from a different view point…

Luna, her little aunt… Maya could see how much she'd cared for her niece, like her niece cared for her. Little Maya would just go out of her head when Luna would leave her, and when she would arrive, oh… It was enough to make a parent jealous, if it wasn't that she reacted strongly to _them_, too. Throughout all those videos, both aunt and niece had been growing, and the love never left, only increased. The closer they got to the end, to the point where the videos stopped, where Kermit would be gone, she could almost see a fear in the young woman's face, like she could sense what was coming for the little family, and she worried for what it would mean for her 'Cherry Bug.' That was what she'd call her, and Maya could just remember when they would go for ice cream, and she'd want 'more cherries!' on top of hers, every time.

And her father… She couldn't help it, she would watch him closest of all, and how could she not? He had been the one putting questions in her head the longest, the very first of them… _Why? Why did you leave? Where did you go? Where are you? Don't you love me anymore?_

To watch his progression, from that eighteen-year-old kid so bowled over in love with his baby daughter into the guy who, at twenty-four, had made a choice that would change all of their lives forever… What she saw in him, as she made her way through the thumb drive, was someone whose motivation had just run headlong into reality, and the deeper he sank into it, the more his situation changed… and it changed him along with it. She could see just how much he had loved her mother, and loved _her_, every single day. But for all of that love, in the end, it just… it hadn't been enough, had it?

And then he'd left. That wasn't in the videos, of course not. Had he gone away hoping maybe to find the thing he was missing? If he had, he had taken a very wide detour, and he had met Abigail, and he had become a father again… and again… and again and again, and she had just remained on the outside of all that. Until… Until his illness had gone and knocked something into him… sense, or truth, whatever they might call it. And he had come back to her. Was she to understand that, had he not fallen ill, he wouldn't have made this turn? If that was the case, then how was she meant to react? When it came down to it, did the cause of the turn matter more than the turn itself?

The question had continued to spin at the back of her mind for almost two weeks now, and she had yet to figure out how to answer it, or if she should. She'd spoken with Kermit a few times, whenever she'd call her siblings. That was new. Still, despite the steps they'd taken over those days he'd stayed at the house, there was hesitation in their voices, caution and uncertainty as to where this would all go. They both knew things were not fixed one way or the other yet, not by a long shot. What would it be like then, when she reunited with her aunt?

Before all that though, there was something big for Lucas and her to see to. They had a doctor's appointment that afternoon, and there would be the scan, they would know… They had already decided they were going to find out if they could find out, and now the day had finally arrived.

Their class schedules made it so that she finished well ahead of him. With everything that needed to happen for them to get their answer, and maybe because Maya found it impossible to wait around the university, she had gone ahead of him and reached the clinic while Lucas was still in class. She sat in the waiting room, drinking water and flipping through a parenting magazine.

Meanwhile, Lucas was looking at the clock on his phone like his life depended on it. He was trying so hard to focus, but his mind kept wandering away to where it wanted to be, with Maya, to find out if they were having a boy or a girl, to see how their baby was growing and if all was going well… When class was dismissed, he was as good as gone once he could gather his things, except…

"Mr. Friar, a moment?" his professor called him back with a wave of the hand. Lucas froze mid-stride, turning back to the man.

"Uh, any chance it can wait until next week, Professor, it's just I've got an appointment and…"

"Unfortunately, no, please, sit," the professor pointed to one of the seats in the front row of the classroom. Lucas stared at him, strongly considering just leaving anyway. He might have done it, too, if he wasn't so concerned with ensuring that he kept presenting himself as he should. He went to sit, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket and forcing himself not to check when he knew already what it would be.

_Maya: I know you're just getting out of class, and no pressure, but the receptionist says I have to go in before too long. Hurry up but be careful? I'll try to hold it off as long as I can, but I'm telling you, it's already rough. That was _so_ much water!_

By the time he would see the message, it would be a good ten minutes later, closer on fifteen even, and it was accompanied by a confirmation that she was being called in. Lucas could only do his best and compartmentalize his talk with the professor and his desire to reach that clinic as soon as possible and all in one piece. He ended up grabbing a cab, where he was able to text Maya back and tell her about being held back.

_Lucas: I'm on my way!_

He sped through the clinic doors, where he was pointed over to an exam room. He was still catching his breath when he finally reached her.

"I'm so sorry…" he breathed. "Tried to tell him… Wouldn't let me…"

"I know," she reached out her hand for him so he'd come toward her. He walked up to the big chair where she still sat and kissed her, finding her smiling. "I'm just glad you're finally here."

"Where's the doctor, did you…"

"Stepped out for a minute, it's fine," she waved this off like she'd been waiting to get to say something. "So, you're a guy," she started, gesturing toward him. He tilted his head, blinking.

"Last time I checked, yeah," he couldn't help but chuckle. "Why?" She nodded past him.

"You tell me," she made a small face somewhere between sheepish and amused. Frowning confusedly, he turned around, finally registering the screen, frozen on an image he could somehow recognize as their baby, in all its fuzziness. For a second, he was forced to realize he had indeed missed it, which made him sort of sad, but then he was looking at their baby, and the details were so different from the last time they'd seen…

He knew without knowing when he saw what she'd wanted him to notice, and for a moment he just kept staring, and staring, and then… His feet almost tripped up on him, which was saying something, seeing as he was standing in place, and his head whipped back to look at her, with that growing smile on her face. _I owe her a pizza…_

"I really tried not to look until you got here, but then I saw and… well, you can't unsee…" She didn't say anything further here, as he leaned forward and kissed her. A boy… They were having a son… All of a sudden, it didn't matter so much what he had or hadn't pictured in his head. He couldn't wait for the day where he got to hold their baby boy in his arms.

As they'd returned home, there really was this buzz in the air between them, brought on with the knowledge that their baby was coming along right on schedule, that he was doing well, that he no longer had to be an it… At the same time, it left them with a bit of a choice to make. It was one thing that _they_ had found out. Were they planning to let the others know, too? Their friends, roommates, families?

"Maybe we should," Maya offered as they were nearing the house. Dylan had been kind enough to drive Lucas' car back, after he'd left it at the university earlier, so they had taken the bus and were now walking along, arm in arm. "I have a feeling either of us could slip up at some point."

"Yeah…" he agreed. He usually had a pretty good poker face, but on this he just knew he would give himself away. "How do you want to do it?"

"I mean, I had time to think about it earlier," she pointed out, hoping not to make him feel bad for being late. "Instead of having to plan this whole big thing like it's some huge deal to everyone, I'm thinking we send them all a message… maybe while we're in Tucson this weekend. Equal opportunity all around," she lifted her chin. He laughed.

"I like that. We can take a picture when we're at the hotel or something."

"And watch our inbox implode," she nodded.

Keeping the lid on their little secret was easy enough for the fact that they hadn't specified their intent to find out what they were having to anyone but the two of them, still, there were a few close call in the day that followed, all the way to the point where they'd been dropped off at the airport for their short flight to Arizona.

Maya slept the whole way, literally dozing off even as the plane took off. She woke again just as they were being informed that they had successfully landed.

"We're here already?" she mumbled, turning her face up.

"Blink of an eye, right?" Lucas smiled, brushing hair from her face as she seemed to realize she had been asleep.

Maya had never been in Tucson before, and while Lucas _had_ been, once, he had been no more than four years old at the time, so his recollection was lacking enough that they were on even footing. Somewhere over the next two days they would maybe get the chance to go around the city a bit more, but for the time being, they just headed straight for the hotel, where they checked in and soon decided to order room service. Only after they'd eaten did they bend their thoughts to this reveal to their friends and families.

"So, how do we do this?" Maya asked him with a giddy smile.

"I don't know, I tried to think of something while we were on the plane, but it was all a bit…" he shrugged.

"What, corny?" she filled in, chuckling. Again, he shrugged, evasive enough to suggest 'corny' was right on the money. "In this case, isn't it kind of appropriate? We're being all braggy and showy about our baby… our _son_," she pressed on, knowing it would get a smile out of him, and possibly a tear or two. It did not disappoint. "Yeah, see," she pointed at him. "So, come on, lay it on me, Dad Man," she insisted.

"Okay, but I'm leaving anything art-y in your hands," he countered, to which she gave a 'humble' tip of the head.

Not long after this, in Austin and Houston, in New York and Boston, many a phone came alive with a message from either Maya or Lucas, with the same text. _Thought you'd like to know…_ Attached along with it was a picture. It showed the two of them, as she sat just before him, although their faces didn't appear, the picture instead framed roughly around Maya's belly, her shirt pulled up enough to expose it. Thanks to the assistance of some hastily bought electric blue eyeshadow down at a nearby drugstore, which they'd brushed on to part of his left hand and her right, they had curved their thumbs and index fingers, which they held joined somewhere about her belly button, to create a heart.

"They're going to figure out what it means, right?" Lucas asked, as they were cleaning up their hands a minute later. By way of response, his phone and hers started giving a chorus of notification bells.

"Think they got the message, yeah," Maya laughed.

Much as he had wondered if maybe the anticipation of the next day, seeking out her aunt, would keep her from finding sleep, Lucas had barely come back from brushing his teeth that he saw Maya was already sound asleep, turned on to her side in wait of his joining her. Instead of getting into bed right away though, he couldn't help himself, and he went and knelt by the side of the bed, for a bit of one-on-one chat time with the sprout.

"Hey, kiddo," he spoke quietly, letting his fingers graze their way under the hem of Maya's shirt until he could lay his hand flat over the bump. He stole a look up to her face, checking that he hadn't awakened her. "We didn't really get a chance to talk last night, even though I really wanted to say something. So, listen, I know that your Mom and I made kind of a big deal about you being…"

The moment he felt it, he froze. Was that… No way… He must have imagined it, flexed his hand or something.

"Did you just…" he started to ask, but then just as quickly reached up to give Maya's shoulder a careful nudge. "Hey, wake up," he spoke, a little louder now. She grumbled, halfway sleeping still. Lucas reached for her hand, brought it down to rest where his hand had been a moment before. "Alright, if that was really you, how about an encore for your Mom, huh? Maya, come on, I think he's…"

"What are you…" Maya muttered, coming around to more awake, which came right on time. Lucas saw the surprise in her face at once.

"Did you feel that?" he asked. "I was just talking, and then he…"

"I did," she nodded, completely more awake now. She was speechless now. It wasn't exactly going to win any soccer match, but it was definitely something, and she'd felt it… They'd both felt it, one after the other. Her response now, in lieu of the words she couldn't get a hold of, was to laugh, running her hand over her belly of her own accord now. For nearly an hour after that they just lay there, big spoon and little spoon, with their hands laid side by side, waiting, trying to coax another manifestation with words and songs, but those two separate instances were all they got for now. That was alright though, it was something, it was contact. Their little boy was making his greetings.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	16. In Heart and Mind

_Chapter 16_  
_In Heart and Mind_

She had always been an early riser, but somehow waking in a bed that wasn't her own, especially in a hotel, only made this more of a thing. Add to it the growing baby boy inside her and she was unsurprised to wake to sunrise in Tucson.

Lucas was still asleep, and she just managed to get up without waking him. After a quick stop in the bathroom, she lingered on her way to the window, stopping for her phone and a sketchbook and pencil before sitting on the small couch, facing toward the sky colored by the rising sun. Knowing with certain authority that she'd be awake by now, she texted her mother.

_Maya: The baby kicked last night! Twice!_

Waiting on a response, she looked down to herself and pulled up her shirt a bit, like maybe it would happen again and she'd see… something. She let it down again when her phone vibrated with a response. The first one was a row of happy emojis, then a moment after that:

_Katy: Sleep alright?_

She sighed, though at the same time she had to smile. She assured her mother that yes, she'd slept just fine. Her mother was very familiar with her hotel sleep patterns, too, wasn't she?

_Katy: Nervous?_

A breath now instead of expelled in a sigh. She'd say no to anyone who'd ask, even Lucas, even her mother. She would have told them, if not for the fact that, while she _was_ nervous, it hardly felt enough to warrant raising any concerns. How else was she supposed to feel when she was about to go and basically cold call the aunt she hadn't seen in fifteen years? Sure, she was pretty sure she'd be welcomed with open arms, but until that actually happened, well… anything else could happen, too.

_Maya: Did you ever try and get in touch with her again?_

She'd never gotten the nerve up to ask the question. She knew it had been her mother's call not to have Luna around anymore after Kermit had left, and despite everything Maya did understand why she'd done it. But that had been a choice made in a moment of great pain, and after it hadn't been so fresh anymore…

_Katy: No, I didn't. I tried to, a lot of times. Mostly around your birthdays, or when you'd do something and I'd get this thought in the back of my mind that she would have been excited, too. But every time I would think about it, I would think about the last time I saw her, and the things I said to her, and I couldn't do it._

Maya didn't have trouble picturing her mother's hesitation in those moments, same as she understood what she was saying under all that: she was ashamed of how she'd acted, and she hoped she might repair some of it someday. _I can get it started for all of us._

She set down her phone when she was done with her mother. Picking up her sketchbook and setting it in her lap, she started to leaf through the pages she'd already filled. She'd started this one in early November, putting to paper what she could, to express the things she felt upon learning of her impending motherhood, of the presence and the growth of their sprout… their baby boy… Soon, that was what this whole sketchbook had become devoted to. Happiness and anticipation, one step and then another…

When she reached the next blank pages, she smiled to herself. Two pages side by side and two new things happening one day after the other. On the left-hand side, she sketched a reproduction of the image they had sent to their friends and family, their hands covered in blue eye shadow, held in a heart over her belly. She'd add the blue once they were home again. On the right-hand side, she created an interpretation of what it had felt like to feel that first kick, not so much the actual kick itself, but that so long sought event. _Contact._

"You've been up a long time," a still sleepy voice spoke from over her shoulder. As enthralled as she'd been in her drawing, the room was so quiet that she hadn't been startled by his approach. She looked over her shoulder to find Lucas standing there, taking in her new drawings, while she was much more taken with his bed hair. It was going strong this morning, and she had to bite back a laugh. "Hotel or sprout?"

"Both," she shrugged, as he went to sit at the other end of the love seat, picking up her legs from the second seat and setting them in his lap. "I looked up some breakfast places around here," she took up her phone and held it toward him. "I like this one," she declared, waiting on his opinion.

"If you've been up drawing that long, I'm guessing right now you're pretty hungry, huh?" he asked.

"I'm about five minutes from doing that thing like in cartoons when hungry people see other people as food," she gave a solid nod. He laughed.

"Fair enough, won't keep you waiting."

They got dressed and left the hotel, making their way to the restaurant Maya had found. The place was crowded enough, though not so much that they had to wait to be seated.

"I'm still getting responses from the picture last night, you?" Lucas showed her a message he'd received from Zay. He and Nadine wanted to know if, now that they knew it was a boy, they had decided on a name. And, if they _had_ picked, could they know it?

"He just wants to know if Isaiah is in the running," Maya laughed.

"Isaiah Friar," Lucas tested it out. She gave a cringing smile.

"Don't get me wrong, it's a solid name, just… How do I say this without insulting you, our friend, and the whole of our home state?"

"Bit too… Huckleberry?" he suggested.

"Now…" she gasped with mock hurt, but then he laughed, so she joined in. "I'd be willing to keep Isaiah on the backburner as a middle name for any future sons."

"I like that," he nodded.

"Speaking of names though, I'm starting to have doubts on my pick."

"What? Why?" Lucas asked, blinking. Much as they'd always said they might change it down the line, only making things official once they actually had the baby, he'd sort of adopted the name in the part of his mind that trusted Maya's gut too much to think she'd be wrong.

"Because I just realized it would mean his initials would be A.L.F.," she explained. Off his hesitation, she pressed on with a small nod like 'you know who that is, don't you?'

"Is that… the thing with the puppet?" he asked, unsure.

"More or less, yeah. My mother loved that show as a kid, watched reruns when I was little. Anyway, all it takes is one kid finding out that's a thing, and _our_ kid will have that following him through school," she sat back in her seat with a frown. Lucas found it near impossible not to find it adorable whenever she'd get preemptively incensed over some future trouble for their child.

"Who's going to know his middle name anyway?"

"He's going to be half me, he'll probably get in trouble, and I'll march into that school like 'Alexander Lucas Friar, what did you do?'" Alright, he couldn't hold back the laugh that time.

"Okay, so just don't do _that_, and he'll be fine. They won't know, so he'll just be…"

"A.F.," she provided, with a raised eyebrow. The first one was cute, the second one had a different potential, or at least it did in her mind, because for some reason, now that she was going to be someone's mom, it was like her brain had gotten itself an expansion pack that foresaw _all_ the possibilities, and about half of them were bad.

"Right…" Lucas slowly nodded. "Is that even going to be a thing by then? It's not even really a thing anymore _now_." She wasn't paying attention to him, was looking sort of through him or… past him? "Maya?" he waved his hand about until she blinked and looked at him again. "What's…" She pointed past him, looking strangely stunned.

He turned in his seat and looked over the top of the booth, unsure what he was looking for at first, until he saw something that made him give a double take. There was a woman sitting across the restaurant, at one of the tables with chairs instead of booths, with a couple of small girls. The girls were sitting across from her so he couldn't see their faces, but it wasn't them Maya had seen. The woman… He hadn't seen the photo, but he didn't have to. The family resemblance was there to slap him upside the head.

Luna… That was her. And those would be her daughters, Maya's cousins… and her aunt. Of all the restaurants they might have picked, of all the days, and times…

"What do I do?" Maya asked, whispering. Looking back to her, she seemed to be trying to make herself even smaller, so she couldn't be seen. All at once, her small, insignificant worries felt huge and made of stone. Was this a mistake? Should she have called first?"

"Want me to go talk to her first?" Lucas asked, trying to position himself on his seat so that Luna wouldn't see her yet, out of instinctive support.

"What? No, that'd be… I mean…" She closed her eyes, took a breath. "No, I-I'll just…" She reached for her water glass, drank down half of it in a few gulps, paused, took a few breaths, drank the rest, breathed some more. "Be right back. If the food come, don't eat my potatoes. Or anything else off my plate."

She stood up from the booth, absently straightened up her shirt. No chance of unpacking things bit by bit, no, it'd be straight up 'Hi, Aunt Luna, here I am, the niece you haven't seen in a decade and a half because your brother ran out on us and my mom chased you off, oh, also, I'm having a baby.' They'd come all the way to Tucson for her to get to see her again, this was the whole purpose of their trip, and she was being overly dramatic for nothing. She walked slowly across the dining room.

Luna was occupied as she approached her. Both her daughters had been equipped with crayons to turn their blank placemats into masterpieces, and she was listening as they told her all about what they'd drawn. Seeing that smile on her face as she gave them her undivided attention, Maya could remember mornings when it had been the two of them having similar conversations.

"And the unicorn is called Shimmer," said the older one, who'd be Ginny, while her little sister, Sadie, went on to say that there was a unicorn on _her_ drawing, too, but they couldn't see it because it was hiding behind the house. For one split second, Maya thought once more about backing away. But in that same moment, Luna looked up. She saw her. The way she froze, Maya knew she had recognized her.

"Mommy, look," three-year-old Sadie poked her arm with her crayon. "Loo-ook!" The spell was momentarily broken, as Luna blinked and looked back down to her daughters for a moment before looking to the young woman standing behind them.

"Yes, baby, just hold on a minute, alright?" she smiled to Sadie touching her chubby little cheek as she stood and moved around the table. "Maya?" she asked in a sort of trembling voice as she took the few steps to stand before her.

"Hey…" she held up her hand in a weak wave, not knowing what else to say. She was always so quick with a comeback, and right now she really had nothing.

"H-how… You're here, you…"

"Funny thing, I came all the way to Tucson to find you, and the one place I stop to have breakfast first… here you are. I might have missed you if I…" Oh, good, now she'd hit the other extreme, it was either shocked silence or excessive rambling.

Luna inadvertently came to her rescue on that one, because in the next moment she'd reached out and hugged her near, and Maya stopped talking at once, hugging her back. The hold may have lasted longer, and the next one certainly would, but right about now they were interrupted as the sprout gave its other form of contact. Luna pulled back and looked down to her belly. She hadn't even noticed, right up to that moment.

"Oh, by the way…" Maya had to laugh, even as she was coming to discover she'd been shedding some happy tears, just as her aunt did.

"Mommy, who's she?" six-year-old Ginny asked. For the second time in all of a minute, Luna was brought back to reality by one of her daughters. She turned back around, which now presented the two girls with a side-by-side sight of their mother and the stranger. "How come she looks like you?" All Maya could think was that if she ever met Nellie, those two would get on like a dream.

"Well, that's because she's family," Luna explained, turning a smile to Maya, the kind you got when you still hadn't gotten over something wonderful that had just happened.

"She is?" Sadie asked, perched on her knees as she turned on her chair to look at them.

"But we never met her," Ginny maintained her inquiry.

"That's a long story, a… a very long story, and I'll tell it to you someday. But to make it short, this is your cousin Maya."

"Cousin?" Ginny's eyes widened.

"Like Sammy?" Sadie asked, smiling. At this, Maya leaned forward with a smile of her own.

"He's my brother," she whispered, and Sadie looked satisfied enough by this to stretch out her arm to offer her hand in greeting, like she'd seen people do.

"My name's Sadie Chen," she announced. Maya took the offered hand.

"Nice to meet you," she nodded, and that was Sadie sorted. As for Ginny, she was still momentarily held back by the confusion of how this stranger could be family, but if her mother said she was, who was she to argue? So, she did the same as her little sister, and got her own handshake.

"I'm Ginny," she introduced herself. "It's short for Virginia," she added after a moment, like she'd thought 'well, she's family, so she should know that.'

"Got it," Maya nodded. "I'm Maya… That's short enough as it is, and so am I." Ginny and Sadie laughed. Oh, they liked her already.

"Are you here by yourself?" Luna asked now. Her hand had been coming and going from Maya's arm, like she still couldn't convince herself she was really there.

"No, see that guy in the booth over there, trying to look like he's not looking here? That's my fiancé," she explained.

"What's that?" Sadie asked, faced up to a word she didn't know.

"It means they're going to get married," Ginny told her little sister.

"Oh!" Sadie smiled, satisfied that it was nothing bad.

"Oh, get him over here, sit with us, please," Luna insisted, already moving to bring a fifth chair over from a neighboring table. "Don't worry, we're here all the time, they know us."

Taking that walk back to the booth, Maya no longer felt those nerves plaguing her. She felt a kick, actually, and it couldn't have been any timelier. She stopped next to booth, seeing their plates hadn't arrived yet, which was just as well.

"Hey, Sneaky, don't become a spy," she told Lucas. "Come on, we've been invited."

Picking up their things, he followed her over to the table, where one of the waitresses had already managed to pass and add a fifth setting, at the end of the table that would place him between Sadie and Maya. Freeing a hand, he shook with Luna as Maya made the introductions. Both girls held up their hands at once to get their turn.

"Maya said you're… fancy?" Sadie asked, turning to her mother even as she asked. Luna and Maya both laughed.

"Fiancé, baby," Luna told her. Sadie looked at her with a frown like 'yeah, that's what I said.'

The meal continued to be for the most part an interrogation session from the Detectives Chen toward their new cousin and her fancy. To a certain point, this proved beneficial, for Luna and her girls at least, as it provided them with a lot of information. As far as Maya getting to speak with her aunt however, it was not happening. When they were done eating though, Luna was set to drop them off at their father's for the weekend, so she invited Maya and Lucas to join her back at her house.

"Kenneth and I split up two years ago," Luna told them as they drove from his apartment building. She looked to Maya, sitting in the passenger seat. "I could see the question in your eyes," she explained.

"Sorry," Maya still had to say.

"It's alright. Truth is it should have happened a long time ago, but then I tell myself that, if we'd gone our own ways, I wouldn't have Sadie, maybe even Ginny, and I don't regret a thing anymore. I'm just glad we didn't drag it on and get to the point where it could affect them." There was a beat of silence. "Now for a very bad segue, how long have you two been together?" Maya snorted, catching Lucas' eyes going wide through the rearview mirror.

"Uh, officially, six years. There was about a year before that though where we were sort of… teetering on the edge. We got engaged on Christmas Eve," she smiled, momentarily taken back to that moment on the steps of their old middle school, even as her hand went to the ring on the chain around her neck." From the interrogation at the restaurant, Luna had already learned that the baby was due in June and that it was a boy.

There were some bigger questions she was dying to ask, Maya could see it in her face, but she was holding off until they were at the house, not on the road, so she left those alone, too, instead asking about Luna's life here, what she did for a living and all that. She learned that her aunt worked at the front desk in a hotel. When she told them which one, both Maya and Lucas must have had the same look on their faces, which led Luna to guess…

"You're staying there, aren't you?" They nodded. "I'm not in on weekends and evenings," Luna told them, which explained how they hadn't run into her. "But I can get you two a discount," she smirked.

Finally, they were at the house. Luna let them in and just as soon hurried to pick up some toys and books and DVD boxes lying around the living room in the manner of anyone welcoming unexpected guests. At the same time, she looked just a bit frazzled. Maya may have been looking forward to reuniting with Luna for a couple weeks, but Luna had been wanting to reunite with _her_ for years… so many damned years, and she was here. She was finally here.

"How…" she started to ask what had to be the biggest question at the top of the queue in her mind right now. "How did you… I didn't think you'd even know who I was, but you…"

"I…" Maya tried to explain, but words failed her, too. "I guess I didn't… I mean, it was all still there, just way… ways down, but then Kermit, he…"

"You talked," Luna cut in here, like she thought she must have misheard, which would have been something of a feat with someone called Kermit. "You talked to your father? When?"

"He didn't you what happened?" Maya was surprised.

"Something happened?" Luna shook her head.

"He showed up on my doorstep about a month ago to bring me birthday presents from him and Abigail and the kids, and because he'd found out about the baby," Maya explained. "I… wasn't exactly pleased to see him, some words were said, and then he collapsed." Luna listened to all this with a concerned look on her face. "Paramedics got him to the hospital, and that's when I found out about what's been going on with him."

Whatever her brother had or hadn't done when he was supposed to do it, she still loved him very much, and the fact that he had been so ill appeared like a dark cloud over her.

"He couldn't fly home right away, so… I let him stay at the house with us," she looked to Lucas sitting by her side. "Once, he mentioned you and… the moment he said your name, it was like a door blew open and stuff spilled out."

"I've got one of those upstairs," Luna gestured with a faint smile returning to her.

"And then there's these videos he gave me on a drive. I saw you in a lot of them," Maya smiled back. "And I remembered so much more. After that, I just… I wanted to see you again, decided to surprise you." Luna nodded. _You did._

"I wanted to come and see you so many times, you don't even know," she breathed out. "Whenever I'd be home from school back in college… One time, I came as far as your building, you must have been around eight or nine. Saw you playing around with some other kids, you looked like you were having fun. I wanted to cross the street, see if you'd still know me, but I… I chickened out. Next time I came, I went right through the door, up the stairs, knocked on the door… Some guy opened the door, said you and your mom had moved out."

Maya imagined that moment all too well, building up courage that came too late and realizing it was all for nothing.

"I used to tell people you were my little sister," Luna looked to Maya with a sad smile. "You looked like you could have been," she shrugged, "And… after a while, maybe that's how I saw you. 'Niece' didn't feel like it fit you anymore. But then…" she bowed her head.

But then, Kermit had left them. But then, Katy hadn't wanted Luna around her daughter anymore.

Maya had gotten up from one couch only to go and sit on the other, putting her arms around the woman, who hugged her back now, without the interruption of curious children.

Once they had pulled away, the conversation had moved into a solid bit of catching up between the estranged aunt and niece. On the whole, Luna was much interested in hearing about Maya's life than giving her the beats of her own life.

Maya gave her the highlights, from growing up in New York alone with her mother after Kermit had left, meeting Riley and her family, which would one day facilitate their move to Texas thanks to a loan from the Matthews which had long been repaid. She told her about how it had been rough for her to adjust in the beginning, how she couldn't have done it if she hadn't met Lucas and his friends. She told her about playing basketball in middle and high school, with a brief move into the matter of the teams being disbanded for two years. It still all seemed like yesterday.

She told her about meeting Sam by chance, and how it had led her to reconnect with her half-siblings out in New York, even as she'd keep a wall up where Kermit was concerned. This much Luna had heard about, through her other nieces and nephews, and her brother and his wife, though she was glad to hear her side of it, too.

Maya went on to tell Luna about her art, how she was currently studying to be an art teacher. She had her baby sketchbook in her bag and she showed it to her aunt, who looked more and more amazed with every page she turned. When she landed on one page where Maya had been scribbling something that looked like a poem, she explained they were actually song lyrics, something she'd been tinkering with for a lullaby. This then led to the revelation that she was in a band. A pretty solid band with followers around the world, as Lucas was so kind as to inform Luna, turning a smile to Maya when she looked at him. _No chance you should sell yourself short._

"You sing?" Luna asked with a smile.

"And plays guitar, and writes songs…"

"Lucas!" Maya turned to him again. He shrugged and sat back. His work here was done. She squinted at him; she couldn't even be mad.

This bit of information seemed to strike Luna in particular. As she told it now, she'd been in college all those years ago with designs on becoming a writer. It had never panned out, especially after she'd gotten married to Kenneth, and she'd sort of let it all fall by the side, out of necessity, once Ginny and Sadie came around. She didn't regret any of it, but she couldn't pretend that there weren't days where she still wondered what could have been. Looking at Maya, Lucas could see that look in the back of her gaze like she'd just decided someone needed to do something about this, and that someone was her.

Hours later, Lucas volunteered himself for going out to get dinner for the three of them, leaving Maya and Luna to watch TXNY videos together, anything from the videos accompanying their various songs, to those more like video diaries from the band throughout the years.

"Do you… Are you angry at my mother for pushing you out?" Maya finally dared to ask at one point. Luna looked at her.

"I was never angry at her. In the beginning, I was just… I felt helpless, confused, but at the same time I guess I understood. That part never changed."

"_She_ feels awful about it," Maya confessed. "She won't say it, but I know she does. I think she'd like to apologize, to see you again." Going by the way Luna smiled here, Maya could tell she wanted this, too.

So, there was one big question out. And there was the other, the biggest of the big, and it was the never stated other reason why she'd come all this way. She knew deep down that if anyone was going to tell her what she needed to hear, one way or the other, it would be her aunt.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now," she started, and something in her eyes must have telegraphed what she meant. _I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now about Kermit, about letting him into my life, _our_ lives…_

"My brother did a lot of dumb mistakes in his life," Luna told her. "We're talking for as long as I can remember and after he left you guys, too. For a very, very long time, he wouldn't admit that… maybe he couldn't, I don't know. Most of it was silly, some of it was… borderline delinquent… One… One was unforgivable, and that's by his appraisal. When he first got sick, when it got to be pretty bad, he… It was like he'd finally sobered up, and that was what he got out of it. His biggest mistake."

"Leaving us," Maya spoke quietly.

"No," Luna shook her head, and Maya looked up at her, surprised. "I mean, yes, obviously, that wasn't a good thing. He thought he was doing the right thing for you guys, and maybe deep down he was. But everything that came after, not being in your life, being in it in all the wrong ways… He got to feeling like he'd done too much and too little, like no matter what, he'd buried himself in quicksand all those years, and there was no coming back up.

_But he tried anyway._

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	17. Festival of Hearts

_Chapter 17_  
_Festival of Hearts_

All of a sudden, as Maya was rounding toward the halfway point of her pregnancy, it got to feel as though her body up and decided that things had been going much too smoothly for her. She'd been expecting an increase in discomforts, sure, but it didn't make them any easier to bear. All she could tell herself was that things were moving into place, accommodating for the growth and the eventual birth of their baby boy. Once she'd told herself _that_, then all was left was a lot of grumbling and silent swearing.

Her feet had been the worst for a while. No matter how many times Lucas stepped up to try and provide some relief there, it only got her so far, didn't it? And then her back had gone and joined in on this, and that was just wonderful, wasn't it? She didn't complain. She wasn't going to complain. It was nothing so bad as to rouse any of Lucas or their families to get hovering about her more than they already did. The only place where she'd had no choice but to say something was at work.

The hours in the dining room were getting to be a challenge. By the time her shifts would be over and she'd be waiting for Lucas to come and get her, he'd usually find her sitting on the long leather bench just inside the door, where people would wait when there were no tables available, feet up, her coat bunched up between the wall and her back. She'd have this look about her like she could be the picture of patience, but, on the inside, she was pleading for him to just hurry up and get here so she could go home.

Isabel had been helping her from the start, from the days of 'ergo,' and after seeing her trying so hard not to show when her feet and her back were really starting to get to her, to the point where she'd start slowing down, she'd finally pulled her aside to talk. She would start her working at the front desk more, where she could sit and get off her feet a while. It wasn't going to go and fix everything, but it still made a world of difference.

"I hate that I'll have to leave in a few months," Maya had told her with a sigh one night. They were going back to Austin as soon as they were done with school here this semester, and even by then she would probably have stopped working here already. As sure as she was that there were other kind and helpful bosses out there, Isabel had just been a lifesaver since November, enough that Maya didn't want to have to leave her or this place.

"That'll make two of us," Isabel had promised her. "You better send me loads of pictures of that little boy there," she'd smiled, nodding to her belly.

"You'll get those," Maya promised back, chuckling.

They were coming up on the middle of February now, and as much as her discomforts had disrupted her sleep at times, it was nothing compared to the nightmare her mind had gotten into cooking up for her.

The first few nights, it didn't go so far as to wake her, but she'd be moving enough, talking in her sleep, that it would wake Lucas. He had gotten pretty good at providing some comfort, simple reassurance without waking her, and in time she'd go back to sleeping soundly. He didn't mention it in the day either, guessing she probably didn't remember even having the dream. He could hear her though, at night. She'd call his name, like she was looking for him, or like she was pleading with him. Eventually, he started to understand what was getting her so worked up in those dreams, and there was no need to wonder what had put that thought in her head.

"Lucas… Lucas… Don't go… Lucas… Can't leave us…"

Then, the nightmare woke her up. Lucas had gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom, and he'd just been washing his hands when he managed to catch the sound of a small strangled cry. He barely managed to dry his hands and he hurried back to find her sitting up in bed, wild eyed enough that she must not have been completely out of that dream state. The fact that he hadn't been next to her when she'd woken up couldn't have helped put her at ease either.

"Hey, hey, it was a dream, you're fine, I'm right here," he hurried back over to her, sitting and pulling her into his arms even as she was reaching for him. She held on so tight and he closed his eyes, running one hand up and down her back while the other kept her close to him. "It wasn't real."

"It felt real," her voice promised, coming so small as to make her sound like a whole other person.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked after a few seconds had gone by with neither of them saying a word. She let out a breath.

"Was I… Did I say…"

"Yeah… Last couple of nights," he admitted. She made a small noise like she understood now that she'd been waking him up without knowing it, and she hated it. "It's fine. If I hadn't been in the bathroom, I might have been able to keep it from getting so bad this time."

"It probably would have happened sooner or later."

"So, you remember having this dream before?" he asked.

"Yeah…" she spoke softly. After a few moments more, she pulled back so that she could look at him as she went on speaking. "It was almost just like… snippets before, the same things over and over, but this time, it… I don't need a shrink or anything to tell me what it meant; it was pretty clear. We were in my old apartment, back in New York, me and you and him," she pressed a hand to her belly, following that curve up and down and up again. "He was… I'll take a wild guess and say he was about six years old."

"And I left?" Lucas asked, setting his hand to her knee. She still looked so spooked, like the image continued to play in her head. He knew she remembered the last time she'd seen him all those years ago, she'd told him about it, that and the moment when she'd realized he wasn't just out but gone… It was the kind of thing that wouldn't just go away, the kind of memory so readily available that it made it very easy for her mind to make a few cosmetic changes, recast the players, putting her in her mother's position and him in her father's, and their son… their son in hers. "That is never going to happen, okay? Maya, look at me," he begged quietly. When she did, he tipped his head forward until his forehead met hers. "I'm not going to do that, not to you, not to him."

"I know that," she told him. "Really, I do. But then that stupid nightmare, it just sits in my head like it wants to convince me I don't know anything. I mean… my father didn't set out thinking he would ever leave me and my mom either. He was devoted to her, to us. They were young, too, younger than us, I know, but what's three years in the end? And then it got hard, too hard, and he…" She was crying. He could just see the tears drop off her cheeks and make dark circles on her pyjama pants. One landed on his hand, and he reached up to swipe the others from her face before they could join it.

"I'm not him, Maya. We could have been having this baby right out of high school like they did, we could have had him before then, too. I would still be here, with you, with him."

"I can't even begin to think what that would have been like…" she took a breath, let it out. "But I can believe it anyway. I think that's one of the things that made me fall in love with you," she admitted, making him smile. "You were like the embodiment of everything my father wasn't. I'd look at you, and I'd know that, no matter what, you were the one person I could always count on to be there." She was smiling, too, now, while he was sitting there, suddenly being the one on the verge of tears as he listened to her. "So, really, this nightmare is just kind of… it's pissing me off," she decided.

"Yeah?" he asked, smirking.

"It's trying to cast you as somebody you're not, and I'm not having that."

"No?"

"Hel… Heck no," she cringed at her correction, which only made him laugh as he leaned in and softly kissed her. "Shut up," she smiled when their lips met.

Despite this bit of reassurance, it had still taken some time for them both to get back to sleep. The thing with nightmares, she knew, was that they had almost as much power when they weren't happening, because the chance that they could return was enough to make falling asleep again a bit of a challenge. So, while he knew they were still awake, both of them, he decided it was as good of a time as any to bring up Valentine's Day, which was coming up in just a couple of days.

"I don't really have anything Valentine worthy in my maternity wardrobe," she pointed out.

"I don't mind."

"I know, but I do… a little…" she admitted, turning carefully until she was facing him.

"Hey," he smiled as he got 'bump bumped.' "Maybe you could borrow something from Willow?"

"Maybe…" Maya agreed, but he could tell plainly from her voice…

"You don't want to go out, do you?"

"Is that bad?" she asked, looking up at him.

"The whole point is that we're together and we have a good time, right? There's no rule that says we _have_ to go somewhere. The others probably will though, which means… we get the house to ourselves."

"Yeah, it does mean that," she agreed with a smile.

"So, maybe you borrow something from Willow to wear, and… maybe I cook for you…"

"Liking this so far," she nodded slowly.

"And maybe we don't have to put any shoes on…"

"Liking it more…"

"And we eat on the couch, watching whatever you want."

"Genius, I love it." He stroked at her cheek, looking into her eyes, and she hummed. "Just keep on looking at me like that, I might actually sleep through the night."

"Done," he vowed.

X

"Sorry I'm late, had a doctor's appointment," Willow explained as Maya opened the door and let her in.

"On Valentine's Day?" Maya asked with a flare of drama, like it should be a holiday where things closed for some reason. Willow laughed. She was looking around, which Maya guessed to mean she was checking for Lucas. "He's downstairs showering," Maya told her friend and bandmate.

"Good," she opened up the bag she was carrying and offered it out. Maya reached in and pulled out a dress. "That's the one you wanted, right?"

"Yep. Hope it fits…"

"Go try it on," Willow nodded up the stairs.

She had half a mind to just change right where she stood, but finally she led her fellow mom-to-be up to the second floor and into hers and Lucas' room, where she pulled off her shirt and pants before slipping on the dress. Willow stepped up and helped her get it on right before stepping back to check out how it looked on Maya.

"Got this for a family friend's wedding a few weeks back, should do for Valentine's Day, yeah?" she smiled approvingly. Maya turned to see herself in the mirror. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I do, except now I'm thinking if I'm not going to be wearing shoes then maybe I should do my toe nails to match the dress… and the fingers, too," she looked to her hands.

Once Willow had gone, off to go and prepare for her own Valentine, Maya had picked out a bottle from her collection. Before she could sit and start tackling the task – which was really getting to be a Task with the passing weeks – she sent a message off to Lucas' phone, telling him the room was now off limits until the start of their Date. Whether he heard her complain her way through the painting of the toe nails while he was downstairs working on their dinner, he never said and she never asked.

After finishing with both her toes and fingers, she'd sat back on the bed, waiting for everything to dry properly. As she lay there, she started to feel the baby moving, which brought a smile to her face before she could carefully set her palm over the spot where she'd felt him without scrapping her nails.

"Having a good swim there, Sprout?" she asked.

Sometimes she'd try calling him by his name, but it still didn't feel right. Maybe it was just that, while he was in there, she still saw him as her little Sprout, not Alexander… Alex… Or maybe she really had changed her mind about the choice, and not just because of the initials thing. Her aunt Luna had pointed out that their best bet around that potential for teasing was to simply cut it off at the source. Let Alex, if that would be his name, grow up knowing about the alien puppet, let him hold his initials as something fun, something they wouldn't get to use against him. She liked that, but she still didn't know, probably wouldn't, not until she and Lucas got to hold their son in their arms, until they saw his face…

She didn't even feel herself drifting off to sleep. The next thing she knew, she opened her eyes to find Lucas smiling down at her.

"Oh… hey…" she greeted him, still half asleep, then, "No, wait, you're not supposed to see me until I come down, you're supposed to do the face."

"I did do the face," he assured her. "Dinner's ready," he added, offering his hands to help her up. Once she'd stood up on her bare but adorned feet, she pressed her hand to his chest so he'd stand still before taking a couple steps back and waiting. She didn't even have to prompt him, really. He looked at her standing there and the smile crept on to his face at once.

"Okay, let's go," she nodded, satisfied.

Of the many things she could count on, where Lucas was involved and where it led directly to his doing something for _her_, he had taken the combination of a house to themselves, Valentine's Day, and her indirectly promising that she wouldn't be coming anywhere near downstairs until it was time to eat, and he'd run with it. When they came down the stairs and reached the landing, she discovered what he had managed to assemble in her absence. The flowers, the lights, the (coffee) table setting… It all brought a renewed smile to her face.

"If I didn't have this here ring already in my possession, I'd start thinking you were about to propose to me," she turned a grin to him.

"I'd be happy to do it again," Lucas looked back to her in kind.

"I'm pretty attached to my one proposal though," Maya insisted as he led her down the rest of the way. He led her to the living room, where the smell of food was as good a motivator as she could ask for. Lucas would describe himself as an okay cook. He wouldn't be entering any competitions anytime soon, and he could sometimes botch a recipe, but when he got something really right, it was nothing short of amazing. He'd made one of those recipes he knew he could nail tonight, and she couldn't wait to dig in.

"Got your pick of the entertainment," he gave a sweeping gesture toward the television, making her chuckle. "What will it be?"

"Well… I could go super cheesy romantic comedies… or big explosive action adventures…"

"Is there a cheesy romantic action adventure?" Lucas smiled.

"I think that's Titanic," Maya countered, then after a beat, "Yeah, let's do that."

"You're just going to yell at them about everything they're doing wrong, aren't you?"

"They. Could. Have. Fit. On. That. Door," she punctuated each word with intent.

So, they sat on the couch in their Date wear and bare feet, with their plates in hand, and they watched Leo and Kate on their way through one genre and then the next as they hit that iceberg and everything changed. They'd finished eating by then, dinner _and_ dessert. When Lucas held up his arm as though to offer his shoulder, Maya hesitated, pointing out that she'd actually found a position that was kind of perfect for her back.

"You can lean on _my_ shoulder though," she smiled, holding up her arm.

"Alright," he nodded, stretching out along the couch and leaning to the space she'd opened for him. It was inevitable, as he found himself so close to her, his hand came to find her belly and settled there, which suited her fine. Their sprout seemed content with it, too, with the way he'd move around.

"Do you think he knows you're you?" she asked. "I swear it feels different when you're there and he moves."

"Must be all those long talks we've been having," Lucas suggested, which made her laugh.

"Must be, yeah."

As the film progressed, Lucas was treated to what felt like a much more subdued version of Maya's usual rantings over the actions and inactions of the various characters attempting to get off the sinking boat. They had watched this movie a handful of times in the time they'd known each other, and always she'd be shouting at them, but now the words were the same while the tone was kept flat and unassuming, like she didn't want to overdo it because of the baby.

"Oh, here it comes," she sighed, as the door scene came. "We don't stand for this nonsense," she addressed the baby in her belly. When he kicked, he made both his parents laugh. "Look at you, making us proud and you're not even born yet." As the movie ended, they let the credits roll. "My mother was in high school when this came out," Maya told Lucas. "She convinced my father to take her and see it in theaters. She said he looked like he wanted to just leave already… right up until they had the drawing scene," she rolled her eyes. Then she started to giggle.

"What?" he looked up at her.

"I just remembered the first time we saw it, you and me," she managed to say through her still rolling laughter. It had been the first time they'd ever seen it, too. "You turned so red…" she laughed on, as he pulled himself up to sit and look at her, grinning despite himself.

"I'm not red now, am I?" he pointed out.

"Better not be," she tried to give him a squint of the eye but only laughed again. She tried to stall it now, gripping her lip in her teeth.

"She's got nothing on you," Lucas vowed as he leaned in to kiss his Valentine.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	18. From Here to There

_Chapter 18_  
_From Here to There_

The beginning of March got to feel like they'd just hit a new hill with a burst of speed. Things were moving along everywhere they turned. Already the most immediate showing of this was in Maya herself. It felt as though just overnight her belly had expanded into new territory as she broke through twenty-three weeks. She looked at herself in the mirror when she got out of the shower and just couldn't look away. If she couldn't see it, and feel it, she would have had trouble believing this was actually her.

When Lucas had taken the picture for her belly timeline, he had the same sort of look on his face like he was picking up on how much she'd grown. After he snapped the shot, he just had to go to her, set his hand to the swell of it, where their son was growing day by day.

"If this keeps up, I think gravity might do me in before I reach my due date," she joked. He laughed. "I'm serious, okay, I'm tiny," she protested.

"I hadn't noticed," he smirked, more so when she swatted his arm with a smile. "I like your… tininess…" he promised. "Get to carry you around."

"Have fun now, with that extra load," she told him, her hand joining his like she wanted to know their boy to know she wasn't making fun of him.

"Anytime," Lucas assured her. After a moment he crouched down until he could press a kiss to that growing belly of hers, making her feel that rush of love she'd get, every time she was reminded of this life they were about to start, him and her and their Alexander… She was kind of coming on to the name again. Maybe this was another effect of that growth.

They were getting ready for him, every day. Here at home, they continued in their reading, familiarizing themselves with everything they could need to know about their baby before and after he was born. Maya was getting really good with her knitting. She had already fashioned their son what felt like a solid wardrobe for his first few months, along with blankets enough to have themselves and all grandparents covered. Now she had started on crochet and some cuddly animals for him to play with and hold.

There was their other home, too, his grandfather's old place which would soon be theirs. The last few trips down there to advance the work that needed to be done had really pushed onward, too. They had finished clearing out the things that needed to be taken away, which made the place feel a bit empty at first. But they knew that in this emptiness they would start to build what would be their home together, and suddenly the emptiness felt like potential. There was nothing more enticing to a creative mind like Maya's than a blank canvas. This project wasn't just hers though, and they were looking forward to getting through it together.

"I don't know how much we'll be able to do by the time he comes," she told him as they stood in the living room, their first March weekend in renovation land.

She didn't have to say what she meant there. Clearing out everything had been easy, but it also revealed more of what would need to be done to the house itself, the things that would need to be replaced or added. And it was proving to be more expensive than they'd anticipated. They had the money from Lucas' parents, and it would pay for a lot, but they had to think about the long run, and the plans they had made for that money before. They had allotted an amount to the house, the rest as the start of Alex' college fund, and they didn't want to be counting on more money from their parents, much as they knew they would give it if they asked. They might do it if they didn't ask either, as shown by this first check they had received without prompt.

"We'll start with what we can," he nodded. "We can fill in the rest as we go. When have we ever done anything in order?" She smiled, a little, but he could see concern in her eyes. "Hey…" he trailed after her as she kept looking around. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, until she was leaning to him and he had his hands on her belly. "Do you trust me?"

"Always," she vowed.

"We'll make it work," he made his own vow.

"I know," Maya sighed. "It's all just really hitting me, all the things we want to do, and the ones we need to do. The house, the wedding, school, and him…" she looked down to herself, to those loving hands curved to her bump. "Suddenly the age thing is sort of rearing its head… and it's laughing."

The wedding was in six months, to the day, near enough. The dress was one great expense taken away from them thanks to their families, but it was only one thing. And if they wanted not just A Wedding but Their Wedding, the way they deserved to have it, then that would mean a lot more money. They weren't going to have one of those ridiculously overpriced weddings they could see on television, in more of those shows Maya used to watch with her mother, but even something in the middle felt like so much. So, they were calling in favors where they could get them.

Asher, their man of a million connections, was working his magic from all the way back in New York. Isabel had already insisted on catering the day, her gift to Maya, she said, though Maya suspected there would also be another gift, more of the registry kind. As for music, well they had the band, and decorations, well they had loads of crafty people happy to pitch in where they were needed. They could make that work.

And as for school, well they already knew that didn't come cheap, and they were building up a lot in the way of student loans with every semester they went through. They had known that going in, sure, but back then they hadn't considered the fact that they'd be moving into their first house, getting married, and having their first child all before they were handed their diplomas at the end of this. And now what had felt like a load that they could sustain over time had started to feel a lot more like excess, like something they couldn't reasonably saddle themselves with. But they didn't have a choice, did they? It all went hand in hand, getting the education that would enable them to get the kind of work they needed to get in order to support their family, especially considering what they had in mind for it.

After their Valentine's Day viewing of Titanic, because one very long movie demanded another, they had put on the Sound of Music. Lucas had learned that, somehow, Maya had never seen it, and he'd inadvertently revealed that, as a kid, his mother had roped him into playing one of the boys in a small production of one of her associations. So, naturally, they had to watch it, and she had to know immediately which of these boys – it was Kurt – her future husband had played, so she could picture it all in her head.

They'd had to pause at one point, as Maya was in dire need of going to the bathroom, already a chore when either bathroom was a flight of stairs away. When she'd returned, she'd resumed her position, just as Lucas did, and before he could hit play again, she'd said something that made the remote slip from his hand.

"I think we should try and wait about a year before having the next one." He turned to look at her, blinking, unsure if she meant what he thought she meant.

"The next…"

"Baby," she pointed to her belly. He sat up again.

"Wh-what, why? I mean…" Sure, they had both been of a mind, even before she'd gotten pregnant, that whenever they would have kids they would have… well, kids, plural. But with the first one still swimming along in her belly…

"Neither of us grew up with siblings," she pointed out. "I know I more than made up for that later on, but still, I was seventeen before I had any of them really be in my life." She'd had a sibling somewhere in the world since she was eight, but it had taken ten years before she'd even met him, so the first ones she'd really had were the twins. "Wouldn't it be a good thing for him to grow up with a little brother or sister?" Maya asked, her hand absently running along the curve of her belly.

He'd looked at her as she said this, and he'd considered it, and… well, she was right, wasn't she?

"You'll be at home with him for months after he's born, and if we have another one a year later… Maya, what about your degree?" He would never have her sacrifice her dreams, her education, for the sake of her carrying their children.

"Look, we haven't done anything yet, we're still cooking up number one over here, I have time to consider my options, talk to some people. It doesn't have to be one year, it can be two. Then again, this one came as a bit of a surprise, so the next one might be one, too. We really need to keep an eye on that," she thought aloud. Lucas bit back a laugh. "The point is, if we look into it, and we can manage it, what do you think?" He let out a breath, thinking about it, really thinking about it, and… well, there really wasn't much to consider, was there?

Except now, if they were aiming to be seeing her through this pregnancy and birth, and then providing for one baby, only to go and double this up before too long… They weren't going to just go and have a second one so soon if they couldn't provide for both at the time, no matter how much they wanted their son to have a brother or sister to grow up with. But if they knew what they wanted to do, then they'd have a way to set out plans, to do what was in their power so that, when the time came, one year, two years after their sprout had sprouted, they could add another branch to their family tree.

So, here they were now, standing in their future home in all its blank canvas glory, with their baby growing by the day, and all these things they needed to do, to be ready for him, and then to care and provide for him, and it would be so easy for either or both of them to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.

"What's our priority?" Lucas asked. "In the house. What needs to absolutely be done by the time we come in here with the baby?"

"Well…" Maya thought for a few moments. "I'd say the nursery, but I mean we could just keep him in the room with us for a while and it would be sort of practical when we have to get up for him in the middle of the night," she started.

"Right," he nodded.

"Plus, I'm not exactly in shape for being up on a ladder, working on that mural, until after he's out of me," she gestured, making him chuckle. "So, we don't have to have the nursery completely set up for a while, but we do need the actual things." And on that, they were very aware of the number of eager grandparents and sort-of-grandparents, and 'aunts' and 'uncles,' all lying in wait to gift them with most of those items whenever her baby shower would roll around.

"So, our room," Lucas ticked off on one hand.

"Bathroom, kitchen," Maya added for him. "Laundry…"

"Essentials for keeping us clean, fed, and rested. Got it." She snorted.

"Rested, please. You've never lived with a newborn in the house," she looked back at him.

"Semi-rested then," he amended with a smile. "After those things are taken care of, then… we'll see what we do next."

"Organization, priorities, that's what we need," she gave an optimistic nod. "Don't know how that will all look once this guy's actually here, pooping and crying everywhere."

"We've got this," he assured her, backing up her optimism. "Come on, I want to show you something."

He led her up the stairs, or followed her up there at least. She'd gotten it in her head that she could trip and fall down the stairs at any time, so now he would usually be trailing behind her when they went up and going ahead of her when they went down, the better to catch her if she did fall. When they got to the top of the stairs, he pointed to their bedroom door and she went that way, stepping in and immediately knowing what he intended to show her.

"Woah, you finished it?" she grinned, looking back at him before moving toward the bed.

It had been one of the big things he wanted to do, ever since they'd walked through the place, starting to figure out what would stay and what would go. He wanted to restore his grandparents' bed frame for them. Though it hadn't been used in a number of years, and had been in their possession for several decades now, it was still very solid. All it had really needed was restoration. And Lucas had done that, sanding down the wood, varnishing and everything, until it looked like it might have been brand new, without losing any of its style.

"Last night," he confirmed with a proud smile.

"It's beautiful, consider me impressed," she nodded, running her hand along the details along the footboard. Her fingers travelled from there to the blanket laid over the mattress, and it finally dawned on her… "Hey, that's… it's the set I showed you, we said we'd get it once we picked up the mattress and…" Having spent a night there on New Year's Eve, having been in this room a number of times in the last couple of months, she had become familiar with Pappy Joe's old worn-down mattress. This was a king-size bed, they knew they'd have to change it, couldn't just bring the one they had in Houston, but this… This wasn't the old mattress, it was brand new. Even covered, you could just tell, but then… "Lucas?" she looked at him, needing to know.

"Okay, well…" he started, looking just a bit awkward as he started, knowing he'd gone against a choice they'd made. "Last night was more like last afternoon, after you went back to your parents' for the evening. Me and my dad, we finished the frame, everything was just… setting," he gestured to the bed. "So, we were sitting down, just taking a breath and all, and I told him how we picked the mattress and the sheets already… It didn't feel right to have the frame and not the stuff that went in it, so we went down to the store in his truck."

"Who paid?" Maya asked. He had to hand it to her, she was getting really good practice with her whole maternal third-degree skills.

"Uh…" he hesitated, feeling like he was getting grilled.

"Lucas…" she sighed, not so much angry but conflicted. "We said we weren't going to keep taking their money, that we were going to take care of this ourselves…"

"I know, I know, I tried to tell him that, but you know how they get once they've made up their minds about these things. I slipped up, I shouldn't have opened the subject with him, I was tired and I told him. Just look at it this way. For now, we have the bed taken care of, we can focus on something else we need. And, somewhere down the line, we'll find a way to pay them back, some way that they won't know it's for this, like we'll book them a vacation or something."

She was looking at the bed, turning it all over in her head. Lucas understood her frustrations, he absolutely did. It was becoming a point of pride for the two of them to be able and provide for their son on their own as much as possible, and had the situation been reversed he would have reacted the same.

"Did you try it?" she slowly asked, looking back at him. He smiled.

"I made my father try it out, because we had to, but I didn't want to do it without you."

"Well, I'm here now…" she smiled back, mischief returned.

"Women and children first?" he gestured.

"Ha," she deadpanned before moving to kiss him.

They had gotten pretty used to their sides of the bed by now, no matter where they slept, at home, at their parents', friends', in a hotel… She was on the left, and he was on the right. She went and sat on the edge of the left side, kicking off her shoes. Scooting her way back, she settled herself in over the made bed… Her immediate thought manifested itself into the world on a contented sigh.

"Well?" Lucas asked. She patted the empty space next to her without a word, and he went to the right side before sitting and lying down once he'd also let his shoes drop to the floor. "Woah…"

"Right?"

"Yeah…"

"Almost sad that we have to go back to our other bed for the next few months…" she sighed. "I mean, what's a two-hour commute every day, if it means getting back to this?"

"A lot, unfortunately," he laughed, turning on to his side to look at her. She lifted up her head, sticking her arm underneath.

"So… I'm having this idea…" she started slowly.

"Where does it rank against your last idea, with baby number two?" Lucas asked, cautiously hesitant. She smiled.

"Well, it would also mean bringing another Friar into this house," she nodded. "Except much older, and also a previous resident of this very house." He blinked.

"You want… Pappy Joe? To move in with us?" She nodded. "I'm not saying no, but why?"

"You've known the guy your whole life, where do you think he'd be living if he hadn't had his accident?"

"Right here, until the day he died," Lucas replied with confidence.

"The only reason he's not is because he couldn't live out here on his own anymore. But once we're living out here, he wouldn't _be_ on his own. He'd have you, and me, and his great-grandson… He could have sold this place, but he gave it to you, kept it in the family. We could bring him home."

He hadn't even considered it. He might have, if he hadn't been so caught up in getting everything ready for the baby. But she was right. When he'd moved in with him and his parents, he'd been convalescing, and then eventually it had been decided that he would stay permanently, but Lucas knew it had been a choice made out of necessity, and it had cost his grandfather a certain amount of pride, like he was giving up some of his independence. His moving in with the three of them now, moving _back_ into the home he'd made with his wife for all those years, raising his son… It wouldn't be the same, especially once they started redecorating, but it would be as close as it got.

Maya was staring back at him, waiting to know what he thought, and he could only smile, reaching over to pull her closer before leaning to kiss her. She never ceased to give him reasons to rediscover how much he loved her.

"He might not want to," he pointed out when the kiss broke.

"So, first, we ask him."

By chance, when Lucas' father returned to the house an hour later, bringing with him the materials he and Lucas needed to make some repairs, they found that he'd brought Pappy Joe along with him. He got out of the truck, looking up at the place… It was probably the first time he'd been out here in a few years, and seeing how his eyes seemed to fill with memories, Lucas and Maya just looked to one another like they knew how this day had to end.

Lucas and Tom went off to get started, which left Maya with her 'Pappy in law,' as she'd teasingly call him. Lucas had quickly said that she should be the one to ask him, since it was her idea, before leaving with his father to head down to the basement.

"Looks a lot bigger than I remembered," Pappy Joe looked around as they stood in the living room.

"A lot of the furniture's gone, that tends to put things into perspective," Maya moved up to stand next to him.

"Do me a favor, I know you kids are going to spruce up the place, as well you should, but…" he led her through and into the kitchen, pulling open the pantry door. On the inside of the frame, she soon spotted the notches and the neatly marked labels. _Thomas, age 1… age 2… 3, 4, 5… _It went all the way to twelve, likely the last time they'd been able to get him to stand for it. Somewhere in the middle of this, she spotted one mark which differed, a bit wobblier, with the words in a child's hand. _Lucas, 5._ When she pressed her finger to it, Pappy Joe laughed. "He was out here one day, saw that we had one, same as at his house. I don't think he even realized that was his daddy's growth. He just stood there with a pen and measured his own self, and there it is."

"It stays," she promised with a nod, and the old man smiled, patting her shoulder. Maya looked back at that chart, imagining when might start doing the same with their boy… Another generation for the Friar boys, right here. "Lucas and I were actually just discussing a few things earlier, about the future, _our_ future, in this house."

"Tom told me he and Lucas finished the bed, got a new mattress and everything." She nodded. "It was about time," he smiled. "That thing needed to go for a long time, but we never got around to it."

"You should see the frame, they did a really nice job on it."

Once again, it was up the stairs, this time with neither of them with any particular advantage as far as who might be able to support the other if they fell. Maya walked into the room, and she turned to see Pappy Joe stop in the door, just for a moment. Memories, again. He came forward though, and he observed the refreshed frame with great attention. Maya kept watching him for a minute or two more before working up the courage to ask what she needed to ask.

"Like I was saying, Lucas and I were talking, about when we'd be living here, us and the baby, and… We were thinking maybe it's time you got to come home, too." He turned to look at her, even more uncertain of having heard right than his grandson had been. "We'd need to figure out some things, I know, and if you'd rather stay where you are now, we'd understand, but well… We'd love to have you out here with us, if… if you want to."

The first time she'd seen the man cry was when he'd found out for certain that he was going to be a great-grandfather. The second was here, now, as he came up and embraced her and gave a decisive yes. The way he stood there now, it felt like he'd been released of a long-held weight. He was coming home.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	19. Home Sweet Home

_Chapter 19_  
_Home Sweet Home_

"Look, look, look, here he goes," Maya laughed, holding her hands away as Riley, Sophie, and Chiara all crowded in. They all watched as the baby's movements revealed themselves in his mother's belly. For as long as it had been happening, none of them had ever managed to be around in time to see it, but by now Maya was familiar enough with her unborn son's habits, and she'd taken a shot at predicting the next instance while her friends and roommates were there to see.

"Wow…" Riley's face split into the greatest smile, reaching out to lightly lay her hand and meet that movement.

"Kid's active, huh?" Sophie laughed. "You a soccer player? Dancer? Swimmer?" she inquired of Maya's belly.

"He is trying to escape," Chiara suggested. "You know the movie, Alien?" she mimed.

"Don't. Even," Maya pointed at her. "I'm already having nightmares, I don't need _that_ one."

She had been spending the last couple of weeks just counting down the days to this moment, and now it had finally come. Spring Break. One glorious week off. A lot of college kids her age had about one thing in mind for this week: parties, trips… Her big plan was much simpler: she wasn't going to do a damned thing.

Alright, that wasn't exactly true, but she was definitely going to spend as much time as she could just relaxing, not running around all day. She needed this, a week to give her a chance and recharge, before charging onward to the end of the semester and the end of this pregnancy. And she was spending it with Lucas back in Austin, back at their house.

It was the kind of opportunity they couldn't turn down, one whole week to give as much of a push as they could in getting the place ready for them once they moved in, waiting on their son.

"So… what can I do to help the master renovator today?" Maya asked, laying on some drama over her favorite new nickname for him. Lucas laughed. They were driving on their way out of Houston early the next morning, hoping to make good time and get started on the kitchen. "I can… hand you tiles," she suggested, like it was just _so_ hard.

"Well, you could," he shrugged. "Less chance I'll mess up the pattern. But we're not doing the floor until the end."

"Oh… Okay, so what _are_ you doing then, and can I help? Like, at all?"

"I thought you wanted to sit and relax," he looked at her as they slowed to a stop after having caught up with traffic.

"Well, yeah, but not right after we've been driving all this time, I need to just…" she stretched out her arms. "You know?"

"You need something to do," he nodded, understanding.

"So bad," she whispered.

"Look in my bag," Lucas laughed. Maya reached into the back. "Can you get it?" he moved to help.

"I got it, I got it," she promised. "Hands off," she shooed him off before getting the backpack on to her knees and opening it. Sitting right on top was a stack of paint swatches. She gasped and turned to him. "And you said _nothing_?" she 'accused.' He burst out laughing. "Honestly…" she shook her head, keeping the color cards and tossing the bag into the back again.

"Careful," he looked back to make sure it hadn't spilled out, then had to look forward again when a honk warned him that they were moving again. "I've lost you for the rest of the ride, haven't I?" he nodded to himself.

"I have colors, all is well," she promised. He could work with that.

They'd worked together in figuring out what they wanted for each of their 'priority rooms.' Though her abilities to help him were somewhat limited, in some tasks more than others, drawing up plans had been right in her wheelhouse. Well, mostly in her wheelhouse. Adjacent, that was the word. The point was that they had brought their vision on to paper, and now they were going to take it into reality. The only thing that still needed doing besides the actual work was the choice of colors, of materials. They hadn't made up their minds yet, but they would have to make those choices sooner or later, as they needed to go to the store on the way to the house.

"Your father and mine are meeting us there, yeah?" Maya asked as they were coming into the mall lot. She was picking up the mess of color cards from her lap, putting them in order, keeping them well away from the ones she had favored.

"Isn't yours supposed to drive to the airport?" Lucas asked back and she gasped. She couldn't believe that she'd forgotten.

Of course, her father wouldn't be there. He was going to pick up Luna and her girls when they landed from their short flight out of Tucson.

That was the other part of this week Maya had been looking forward to. Luna was coming. Luna, and Ginny, and Sadie, they would be here, as the girls' school break happened to coincide with hers. Her cousins would be meeting everyone, but especially 'Auntie Katy,' who would be reunited with her former sister-in-law after a good decade and a half. She could easily have been the one to go and pick the trio up instead of Shawn, seeing as she'd actually known one of them, but instead she'd sent a stranger – Maya suspected – because she was still too nervous. She _had_ chased her away, all those years ago, and though Luna held no grudge, Katy couldn't help but fret.

Being in touch with her aunt, Maya had to say, had helped put a few things into perspective. And it had convinced her, in what she could only call a probationary effort, to open up communications with her father back in New York, to get to know him again, not as the man he had been, the man who'd left her, but the man who had flown to Texas, for no other reason than to see her. And then he'd passed out on her front step, but the point was he'd come, and they'd talked, and in the end she'd been left with a choice to make. She could either send him packing and keep things as they had been between them, with her having a relationship with her half-siblings and her stepmother but keeping away from him, or… or she could give him a chance, let him into her life again, hers and maybe… maybe her boy's, too.

He was the one who made that she really had to think things through, her baby, her son… She had been charged with his well-being from the moment they'd learned of his existence, and it meant everything to her that she would do right by him, whether that was now, taking care of herself and him at the same time, or after he came into the world. And letting the father who'd abandoned her as a child get anywhere near _her_ child… She had to be sure, more than sure.

Well, she'd been convinced to at least try, thanks to Luna, and once she'd decided that much, her reasoning became that she had, at the time, about four months left before the sprout left her belly. Four months then, down to three now… until she was a mother… She had trouble believing that sometimes, like it was one thing that she was pregnant, that the baby was growing, that she was having him. After that, he was having _her_, as his mother, his parent. She would look at Lucas, and she'd just think 'He's going to be the best father,' and she'd know it was true, but then her…

Anyway…

She had a few months until her son was born, and she'd just have to use this time to decide, once and for all. If, by the end of it, she couldn't see herself letting her father back into her life and into Alex' life, then she wouldn't. _Still not sure about the name…_ If, on the other hand, she thought it was the right thing to do, then Kermit would get to know his grandson, and he could get to know his firstborn daughter again. She would welcome it, with an open mind and heart.

They'd been talking, once a week, every week. That was part of her test for him, too, she guessed. If at any time she felt herself resistant to sitting down and speaking to him, then she'd know things might not be working out for them, and she'd have to re-evaluate the situation. So far though… things had been going well, great even, beyond all expectations.

The first couple of times, their ice-breaker had been for Maya to stand up and turn, showing him how her belly had grown since they'd last talked. So, now, it had become habit. She was always so happy to see how she was growing on her own, so doing a bit of what they'd been calling 'belly brag' was as good of a way to start as she could hope for. After that, the rest would just flow out, and they'd be talking for a good while. Sooner or later, one of her siblings would poke his or her head into the room, join them. When they would get to the point of hanging up, they would wish each other a good week, say goodbye until their next call.

They'd been at this for two months now, and if she had to give this experiment of hers an assessment, she only needed to think of what Lucas had told her, after last week's call. They'd been getting ready for bed, and she'd turned to see him standing there with a smile on his face. When she'd asked him what he was smiling about, he'd pointed out that she'd been talking about what she and her father had been discussing on their call for something like ten minutes, sounding like her sister Nellie when she'd be recounting her days in excessive detail.

"So, it's going well, huh?" he'd smiled, and she'd just felt her face brimming with a smile of her own.

"Yeah, it kind of is."

"Does that mean… Grandpa Kermit?" he'd slowly asked. She'd looked down to herself, run her hand over her belly… She didn't know why she was so sure she knew this, but he'd want to be Granddad.

"It means we keep going, and we see what happens."

Getting to know Luna again, as much as it had facilitated her making a new future with her father, had also helped her reconnect with memories of the past, memories of a part of her life she hadn't so much lost as she'd… needed to remember had actually been good. It had been so easy to lose sight of what she'd had back then, when her father's departure had just shaken everything up until she could hardly sort out the pieces anymore. She'd been getting bits and pieces back thanks to those videos, but Luna, on top of that, had been like… Well, she'd been like the moon, bringing light to a darkened night's sky. Soon enough, she'd get to spend days with her around, with her cousins, too.

Before that though, they had to pick up materials for the house.

They had the future 'Pop-pop' and 'Great Pappy' waiting there to accompany them in their shopping. Tom Friar had been very much involved in the renovation efforts, though with respect to his son's wanting to do as much of it on his own as he could, he would do his best not to intervene unless called upon. As for Pappy Joe, now that it had been decided that he would be returning to his old house, to live with his grandson and his future wife and their boy, he had been taking increasing interest in the work as well. Last weekend, in the midst of more shopping, Lucas and Maya had told him about their position on wanting to accomplish certain things by their own means (which was to say without constant gifts of money from their families), and he had promised to respect this, even as he'd smiled at them with evident pride.

"You will allow me to provide for my own room now, won't you?" he had pointed out, his one exception to the rule. They had accepted. Pappy Joe would be taking up residence in the basement.

"You realize he found a loophole, right?" Maya had told Lucas after this agreement with his grandfather. He'd looked at her, not following. "His room is the basement, which means we've basically agreed to let him pay for all that."

"Not the _whole_ basement," Lucas insisted, but Maya just nodded past him.

"He's looking at the washers and driers."

One very odd argument later – in which each side insisted on paying for the laundry machines – Pappy Joe had managed to win the right of the whole basement, which thus reallocated the money earmarked for the washer and drier toward the living room. Slowly but surely, their house would be coming together, and that had to be the thing they concentrated on.

So, that was last week. This week, it was all about the kitchen, and they had spent every last bit of stircraziness Maya had accumulated in the ride from Houston, so that, by the end of it, she was suddenly very content to sit back and let the others work on the kitchen. They stopped for lunch, and then it was off to the house, where they found company waiting, in the form of Shawn and Katy and the kids, and Luna and _her_ girls. Shawn had MJ curled up asleep in his arms, while he kept an eye on Nellie and Gracie, running around the vast grassy field with Ginny and Sadie Chen. The four girls were laughing and squealing to the point where they could be heard as the truck came driving up the road. Katy and Luna were sitting on the front porch, talking away.

As much as seeing her mother and her aunt back together, talking, might have been the thing to hold her focus, Maya couldn't draw her eyes away from her sisters and her cousins out there, running wild. When they had officially decided they would come and live here, the vision of their child running around out here had been one of the great selling points. Now, as their boy was growing nearer to being born than ever, seeing the girls out there filled her with what could only be described as an excess of maternal anticipation. She was already smiling before the girls stopped and looked at the truck and came hurrying up to meet them, meet her.

She barely had time to get out of the truck that she was surrounded by a pack of eager little faces, not to mention several little hands setting themselves to her belly. Her tolerance for having people's hands feel at her bump was generally: strangers never, friends and family sometimes, children always. The most memorable remained the time when Gracie had felt a kick, right where her hand was, and she'd jumped back and screamed. It had taken a whole week to convince her to do it again.

That was a side benefit of these weekly trips back to Austin now, getting to see her siblings more often. Sure, once they moved back, she'd get to see them so much more, but it didn't diminish from how happy these visits made her and her family, too.

"We rode on a plane! Flying like birds!" Sadie informed her cousin with glee. "And we watched a movie."

"The birds would probably enjoy some in-flight entertainment, too," Maya joked, making the three-year-old laugh. "I'm really glad to see you, all of you. You were having fun, huh?" The girls all nodded. "Alright, carry on," Maya told them, and they were off at once. Ginny, as the eldest of the bunch, looked all too pleased to lead the others along. It didn't matter to any of them who was or wasn't related, so even though technically speaking they were not bound by blood, they would come away from this day telling any and all that they had brand new cousins and that they loved them.

"See, this guy just went and woke up, decided he was going to get first hugs," Shawn declared, walking toward Maya with a very awake and alert MJ reaching out for his sister. "Is it because he's cuter? You can tell me, I won't get offended."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short, man," Maya laughed, picking up MJ with great care to manage him along with her belly, knowing how his little feet had a way to get kind of kicky when he was excited. "Although… damn, he is just getting cuter by the week," she pressed a kiss to her brother's cheek, which got her some squirmy giggles. "That's on you by the way, DNA doesn't lie."

"Please, he's all Katy," Shawn smiled.

"Could that explain why people keep thinking he's mine when I take him out?" she mused.

"Could be, yeah," Shawn played along.

"You two are very quippy, you deserve each other," Katy appeared now, followed by Luna.

"Dad was just complimenting your genes," Maya informed her mother, before MJ was passed off once more, into her arms.

"Oh, yeah, he does that," Katy looked to her husband, and if Shawn believed MJ was cuter, he obviously didn't see the look on his face when he'd look to his wife. The two of them looked like they belonged in some Hallmark romantic comedy or something.

"Maya…" Luna moved to embrace her niece now, and as everyone would do now, when they hadn't been near her for a few weeks, she pulled back to look down at her with that sort of amazed smile, like sure, they knew she was pregnant, knew that as time passed she would get bigger, but that never really prepared them for the actual sight of it. And it had been a solid month and some since the trip to Arizona, when they'd last seen one another, which in sprout growth time was an eternity.

"You're going to cry, aren't you?" Maya asked, smiling.

"No," Luna insisted, with a shaky voice she tried to hide in a laugh.

Before long, the work on the kitchen started, with Lucas being joined by his father, and Maya's mother and father, which left Maya to sit and start to enjoy her time off, surrounded by her aunt, and Pappy Joe, and her siblings and cousins. They watched for a while as MJ tried to follow the girls before finally teetering his way back to the porch, where he ended up sat in Pappy Joe's lap, poking about at the man's beard. It was easy to see him as the great Santa he'd been playing all those years.

More than anything, Maya looked at him now and imagined her own boy getting to grow up around him. She had somehow managed to accumulate something of a sizable family unit over the years, something which had once felt impossible, when it was just her mother and her back in New York. And now, this great big family of hers would be inherited by her son, and that… that might have been one of the greatest things she could have passed on to him. He would be surrounded by people who loved him, before he was ever even born.

"Kermit mentioned you're not talking to your parents anymore either," Maya came to ask her aunt, when Pappy Joe had moved to go see what the girls were up to. Luna looked back at her, not so much upset at her, or at her brother, but still like she would have rather not bring it up.

"About two years now," she finally admitted with a nod. Maya didn't push for more, even though she did kind of wonder. Luna was looking off to where her daughters played for a moment before speaking again. "Your grandparents… It's not that they're bad people, you have to know that. Except after a while, some of their… qualities… can get to be too much, especially for Kermit and I. Years ago, when my brother came home and told them that his girlfriend was pregnant, well… you know how that ended."

"Yup," Maya bowed her head, absently rubbing at her belly. They'd kicked him out, and before long they had cut all ties.

"Right, well, when I told them Kenneth and I were getting divorced, that didn't go over so well either. Words were said, and I guess I'd finally reached my limit. You can love someone all your life and suddenly you reach a point where you realize they're not good in your life, and you need to walk away." They sat quietly for a few moments, watching the girls and MJ as they all ran around Pappy Joe.

"What do you think they'd say of their twenty-one-year-old granddaughter having a baby in college… engaged but unmarried?" Maya asked. Luna looked back at her, quietly debating her answer for a while.

"Honestly, I couldn't say for sure. You know how I told you Kenneth and I might have been better off splitting much earlier than we did? My parents have been due for a split for a good twenty-five years. Except they're staying together, because that's what you do when you get married, when you make a vow, as they so kindly reminded me two years ago."

"Right…" Maya sighed, seeing the picture start to fill in inside her head.

"Separately, I think they might actually be better people. Not perfect, not by far, especially my father, but… better." Another pause, and then… "Are you saying you'd like to get in touch with them?"

"I don't know," Maya leaned back, planting her hands behind her on the porch. "Ever since Kermit mentioned them, I haven't been able to stop sort of… wondering. Maybe it has to do with _him_, too," she nodded down to her belly. "He might wonder about them one day, and I want to be able to answer him. So far though, everything I've been hearing is just a bit…"

"Did Kermit tell you our mother sings in a choir?" Luna asked. Maya turned to look at her.

"She does?"

"At church," Luna nodded. "She's been in that choir since she was a teenager, kept it up, all those years. When she and Dad moved to Florida, her old choir did this whole going away event for her, they were so sad to see her go. She joined a new one down there, as far as I know she's still in it."

"She must be good, huh?" Maya couldn't help but be interested all at once.

"She's amazing," Luna smiled. "No matter everything else, you can't take that away from her. She could have been famous, but that wasn't her thing. She's the one who got Kermit his first guitar, taught him how to play it and everything."

This struck Maya again, imagining her father as a child, his mother passing on her own love for music on to her son… _And then years later, she had let him out of her life, for fathering a child._ She wondered what might have happened, what her life might have been like, if her grandparents had reacted to her conception the way her parents and Lucas' parents had reacted to that of their future grandson.

Music had been one of the things she and her father had taken to discussing the most in their weekly calls, and now she learned that it was a connection not only passed to her from her father, but also to him from _his_ mother. With her son, that would make four generations, surely, and yet…

"It was your father who kicked him out, wasn't it?" she asked. Luna didn't reply, but her face said enough. As memories went, this was the kind you tried to remember as little as possible, even as your brain kept kicking it up out of the depths at the most unfortunate times. "And your mother?"

"I begged her not to let him do it," Luna recalled, sounding almost like she might have done back then, twelve years old and watching a rip tear through her family. "This wasn't right, and she had to know it. Looking back on it now, I think she was hoping it would help him."

"Help him… to force him out of his house?" Maya blinked, refusing to believe it.

"I told you what my brother was like growing up. He wasn't always the most dependable, and he was stubborn. I think she wanted it to push him into doing the right thing, for your mother and for you, to prove them wrong. And if not for that, then… She wasn't going to get our father to change his mind. If he said Kermit was out, he was out." Neither of them spoke for a little while after this. "Maya, whatever you decide, all I can tell you is… prepare for the worst, but don't rule out the chance for good."

They were joined by Melinda Friar around dinner time, as she came in with a takeout order for everyone. As was to be expected, the very first thing she did after climbing out of her car, even before getting the bags from the back, was to go and greet her future daughter-in-law, and of course her Junebug of a future grandson. The first time _she'd_ felt him kick and move, she had burst into happy tears and hadn't stopped for about five minutes.

After everyone else had gone away for the night, Lucas and Maya spent the rest of the evening sitting outside the house. Luna and her daughters were staying at the Hunter Hart house, in Maya's old room, with her blessing. Lucas looked to the side, finding his fiancée off somewhere in her head. He reached over, weaving his fingers with hers until she looked at him and smiled.

"Hey…"

"You look far away." She briefly thought to herself before looking at him again.

"What were your grandparents like? I only got to know Pappy Joe."

"Well, I only got to know my grandmothers after him. My mother's dad died when she was one, even she only knows him from stories people told her. So there was Pappy Joe, who was sort of big and imposing when I was little, and there was Granny Marianne and Nana Susannah." Just saying their names made him smile, and that made Maya smile along.

"Tell me about them?" She'd heard about them before, sure, stories here and there, like Granny Marianne's rings, one of which presently hung from a chain around her neck while the other waited in a box somewhere until September 3rd, and about the long lost mug of Nana Susannah Friar which Maya had found again and gifted him one Valentine's Day. But she wanted to feel like she knew them better. Right now, she needed to hear about the people who'd raised Tom and Melinda Friar.

"So, Nana Sus, she was just this sweet woman, kind of delicate. I wasn't that old when she passed, so I never noticed how short she was until I'd be looking at pictures later on. She would never raise her voice, just wasn't the type. But she'd look at you, without saying a word, and you'd go quiet, too, and you'd listen to her." She could see that. She liked what she heard so far.

"What did she do for a living?"

"Receptionist in a dentist's office," Lucas nodded, flashing that white-toothed smile of his and making her laugh.

"That kind of explains some things," she smirked.

"And your mother's mother?"

Again, he was smiling, thinking about her, and seeing the look on his face, Maya wished she could see what he was seeing in there. Everything she'd heard about the woman suggested Lucas had looked up to her… maybe more than anyone. He didn't bring her up all the time, but when he did, it was like they were being allowed into a part of his heart that was very special. Months ago, sitting around that campfire on New Year's Eve, when they had claimed their name choices, before they'd known whether they were having a boy or a girl, Maya had put in for Alexander, and Lucas… That little girl in his mind, she had been called Marianne.

"She raised horses," Lucas told her. "Looked after old ones, too, when they were old, or sick, and they needed extra care."

"Didn't your mother used to compete as a rider?" Maya asked. She could just see her in that uniform, the hat, long hair in a braid, though she'd still been surprised when Mr. Friar had mentioned this in passing some years ago, like she couldn't associate the woman she knew with that girl.

"For years, yeah," he laughed. "She grew up around them, looked after them with her mom. Granny Em, she gave everything to that farm after her husband died, and when she couldn't keep doing it, she made sure the person who'd take over would give it the same care and devotion that she did. I… I haven't been back there in years."

"Lots of memories," Maya understood. He nodded.

"Why'd you want to know?" he wondered. She told him about what Luna had told her, about her parents, her own grandparents.

"Now that I have Kermit back in my life, and Luna and the girls, I just can't stop wondering about them. But after hearing what Luna had to say about them, I don't know."

"You know, if you ever decide to reach out to them, I'll back you up. It's all up to you. You don't owe them anything."

"I know…" she breathed, sitting up with a frown he was getting to know as her 'stupid back pain' frown.

"Want to come see what we got done today?" Lucas asked, smiling back at her. Yeah, getting up and walking around a bit would help.

"Yes, please."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	20. A Birth in Turquoise

_Chapter 20_  
_A Birth in Turquoise_

_Saturday, April 8th 2023_

The date had been marked on her calendar for weeks, and the closer they'd gotten to it… She didn't know that she'd ever looked forward so little and so much to the same day. Today was her last day working at Isabel's restaurant.

They'd set that date together, and those last few shifts had been making her feel more and more like any longer would have been too much. She'd still be going to school, yes, but she'd _only_ be going to school, no longer combining it with regular nights at the restaurant and the occasional weekend day. After following Lucas back to Austin every weekend for a while, she'd started skipping those and staying in Houston. Much as she loved being out there with him, and seeing her family, she was needed here, too. _This_ weekend, they were both home. He wanted the chance to pick her up from the restaurant for the last time, and _she_ wanted him to take a weekend off.

They were making great strides on the house, or Lucas was, him and whoever would be helping him from weekend to weekend. After putting in weekend after weekend, their Spring Break Sprint had really started to make the house feel like it tipped over the edge, gone from being 'Pappy Joe's old house' into their future home. Only a few more weeks left, and then they'd be on their way.

They had now started looking through everything of theirs in the Houston house, figuring out what they'd be bringing, leaving, and throwing away. Some boxes had been brought on their weekend trips. Back at their parents' houses, they had gone through those other things they had left behind two years ago, when they'd moved out, those things they'd known they wanted to hold on to but couldn't reasonably bring into this house they would share. Now… Now they were headed home, _their _home, and it was time fill their world back in.

One more shift… In her body, she was ready. Twenty-eight weeks in, she was spending most of her nights at the restaurant on the stool at the front desk, and even then she couldn't wait to be done, to be home. The last couple of nights, she had walked in with a headache. She hadn't been sleeping too well, so that was no wonder. Lucas had been her salvation on that front, as on… well, _all_ the fronts. She could tease him about how light of a sleeper he had become since she'd become pregnant, but then she would wake up, frustratingly uncomfortable, and within seconds he'd be awake, too, asking her what she needed him to get for her or do for her.

"Knock me out, that'd be great, then I could sleep…"

"I… could read to you. Phone book sound fun?"

"Do we even have one of those?"

"I could read you the dictionary then…"

"Ooh, educational, go for it."

Her body was ready to be done at the restaurant. Her heart, on the other hand… It wasn't like she'd go on leave, have the baby, and come back a few months after that. They were leaving Houston, she wasn't coming back here except maybe as a visitor, a diner. She'd be leaving Leona, and Lion, and Fidelio, and Isabel, and all the others. She loved working here, loved the people and just the atmosphere of the restaurant. They were leaving for a good reason, and they'd known it would be hard, walking away from these parts of their lives, their jobs, their school, their home. But now that it was happening…

"Alright, Sprout, last turn on the floor," she breathed out as she approached the restaurant. Just a few months ago, she'd been standing out here, her head feeling so big from this brand new knowledge that she had a baby growing inside her, pleading with smallest of small things to keep her steady through the night. There had been some close calls, but they'd made it, hadn't they? She owed him a trip to Disney someday.

Walking in, each co-worker she met would stop and come to hug her, and she'd remind them she wasn't leaving until _after_ her shift, but then with the way she was feeling about this being the last day, maybe she could do with a double dose of hugs.

"Hold on there, Mama," Fidelio called from the kitchen when he saw her passing by on her way to the break room. He called out to Isabel, who'd been working at a stovetop. She called in someone to replace her and continue before jogging to reach her soon to be former employee.

"I'm not late, am I?" Maya asked. These days, she could get so distracted at times, she may well have been.

"Oh, no, no, not at all," Isabel assured her as she escorted her along toward the back. "I just wanted to make sure and get a proper chance for this, and I have a feeling that once the night is out all you'll want is to get out of here, so…" She opened the door to the break room, and when she stepped aside Maya was able to see, sitting on the table where she'd had any number of dinners over the last couple years, a basket spilling over with baby things, toys, and clothes and the lies, but also other things she would guess were specifically for her. "Everyone put in their own thing, there's a stack of cards in the bottom there somewhere. That bag there, that one's mine," Isabel whispered.

So, that was how she started her last shift, trying to look like she hadn't been crying with gratitude and also a bit of sadness over all these people here. The night hadn't been in any way special, there hadn't been any big spills, or particularly memorable events in the dining room, and then it had just ended. Truth be told, that was almost worst than if there _had_ been special moments. Instead, she just got to be in the moment, here, and then… it was over.

Lucas arrived to pick her up and he found her sitting as ever on the leather bench. This time though, there was the great basket at her feet, and she was eating her way through a box of Isabel's buns, her choice of a goodbye treat. She held it up to him and he smiled, taking a bun and sitting next to her.

"Long night?" he asked, kissing the top of her head before biting into his bun.

"Not even," Maya sighed. "Think that'll fit in the car?" she pointed to the basket.

"I'll get it in there," he promised. She sighed, tipping her head to rest at his shoulder.

"I'm going to miss brunch tomorrow," she complained.

"We could come _to_ brunch, to eat, not serve," he suggested.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea. If I just come back the next day, it'll be like I never left, and then I'll have to start again."

"Fair enough. I could _make_ you brunch," he gave a counter offer, and even without seeing her face he knew she was smiling. They had a deal.

The basket was packed into the back of the car, with great difficulty and care, as Maya would keep on warning Lucas if it looked like he might crush or drop anything. They drove off and made great time on the return, except for the fact that Maya had gone and fallen asleep at some point and, knowing how much difficulty she'd had sleeping the last few nights, he didn't dare to wake her. Months ago, he wouldn't have given it much thought, he would have picked her up and carried her into the house, up to their room, and put her into bed, but now, well… She'd been the easiest thing for him to lift and carry around back then. Now… Alright, she was heavy. More than that, he didn't want to run the risk that he might drop her and hurt her and the baby.

_Lucas: Maya's sleeping, staying in the car for a while._

_Dylan: You hungry?_

_Lucas: That's alright, I've got buns._

Half a minute later, Dylan was out of the house and walking toward the car. Lucas quickly locked the doors and shut the windows. When Dylan lifted his hand to knock on the window, Lucas held up one hand and pointed to the sleeping Maya with the other. _Don't you wake her._ Dylan spelled out in signs. B-U-N-S before pressing his hands together in the internationally understood 'please.' Lucas shook his head, pointed to Maya again. _They're hers._ Dylan pointed at him. Why could _he_ have some and not him? Lucas just tipped his head, and with a frustrated sigh, Dylan stomped back to the house. Lucas checked to make sure that Maya was still sleeping before settling into his seat, browsing through his phone and picking out a bun from the box.

"Lucas, wake up," a whisper startled him awake, and he almost smacked the horn on the steering wheel as he realized where he was. Looking to the right, Maya was staring back at him, smirking. The clock on the dashboard informed him it was just after three in the morning. He wasn't sure when he'd dozed off, but now here they were. "We should probably head inside before a cop shows up and wonders why we're in here in the middle of the night."

"Yeah, okay," he replied, still half asleep.

"Hey," she motioned for him to lean in, which he did, enabling her to kiss him. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

The basket was not the easiest to manage when half asleep, but he got it out of the car and carried it inside, where Maya convinced him to just leave it in the living room rather than up the stairs in the dark. They made it to their room, where Maya sat on the edge of the bed and then laid back with a sigh.

"I know I'll be more comfortable if I change, but…" she gestured lazily in a distinct 'don't want to' expression. When he didn't respond, she turned her head and found him holding something, standing next to his desk. "What's that?" she asked. He turned around and she saw it was an envelope. By the look on his face, she'd guess he hadn't seen it until now. "I'm not getting up from here, what is it?" He turned it around so she could see. Even in the moonlight, she recognized the logo in the corner. It was from the university, not here in Houston but back in Austin, where he'd applied to carry on his studies after they relocated. "Come here," she gestured, as she willed herself to sit up again and he came to sit with her, helping her before looking back to the unopened envelope. "Are you opening it?"

"I kind of have to. Just not sure I should do it now, what if it's not…"

"First off, if you don't open it you won't be able to sleep anyway. Second, I have enough faith for all of us, just open the thing already," she smiled, seeing the almost sheepish look on his face.

X

_Sunday, April 9th 2023_

Lucas awoke – in bed this time – to the oddly light sensation of something raining on his face, while someone was making muted cheering noises. He opened his eyes and immediately sputtered as he discovered he was being showered with tiny, tiny pieces of paper from the hands of a laughing Maya. He sat up, dislodging a clump of the confetti like papers, which he realized just by the texture had to have once been a couple pages out of the sketchbook she kept in her nightstand drawer 'just in case,' which she'd ripped and ripped to create the confetti. She had used the few colored pencils also in that drawer to add a splash of color to the paper before ripping it, for 'further festive purposes.'

"Woke up early?" he asked her.

"Had to pee, what are the odds," she nodded, tossing the last of her confetti in his face with a happy grin. Seeing her in this serenely happy demeanor, he couldn't do anything but smile back.

"What are we celebrating?"

"You got in," Maya shrugged to his desk, where the open letter still sat.

"What happened to you having all the faith in me?"

"It was rewarded, now I get to celebrate," she shrugged again, like it was absolutely obvious and why wasn't he seeing it. He kept staring. "I… couldn't get back to sleep, so an idea happened," she finally added.

"Right," Lucas smiled. "Thanks," he told her, while she scooped up some of the fallen confetti and let it rain over his head again. He grabbed some of these himself now and let them fall over her head, making her laugh before he could lean in and kiss her. As it carried on, leading her to lie back against her pillows, they both had to work around the growing obstacle between them. There had been more than a few awkward moments for it over the past few months, but they worked around it after a while. "So, what do you want to do this morning?" he asked with a smile, as the kiss trailed off. "We're both here today, neither of us is working…"

"… you got into college again," she jumped in with the same enumerating tone. He laughed. "Again, why is my being happy for you a cause for ridicule?"

"It's not," he promised, brushing hair from her face. "It's actually sweet."

"This kid you put in me is making me feel all kinds of domestic," she whispered as he leaned in to kiss her again.

"Is he?" he whispered back and she nodded as their lips met.

First order of this celebration, as chosen by him, 'the celebrated,' was that he would make them breakfast and they would eat up in their room, in their bed. Once he'd gotten back up the stairs with the tray, he had discovered that Maya had been joined here by the dogs. Trix and Lou were curled up on either side of her like a pair of fluffy, warm cushions, though he'd actually call them a couple of growling guards. Nowadays, if he so much as tried to reach for Maya, feeling at her belly when the baby moved for instance, while the two of them were around… He'd sooner end up with bite marks than anything else.

"Great," he sighed, which made Maya laugh.

"Sorry, they just showed up, and what am I going to do, say no? Just leave them some food outside the room and shut the door."

After some coaxing – a lot of coaxing – the dogs left the bed and went trotting out the door, following Lucas' offering. Once they were in the clear, he hurried back and closed the door. It earned him some whining from out in the hall, but it was either that or a cold breakfast.

"You know, I really thought I would be more… up," Maya struggled to find the right word. "Like, I see other pregnant women going around, as far along as I am, sometimes more, and they're just dancing around like it's nothing. Meanwhile, I'm here and… ugh…" she gestured at herself, laid out here.

"You'll have more time now," he reminded her, "That might be good for you, help you get more energy again."

"Oh, so I can't use that time to just take way more naps?" He laughed, moving to lie closer to her, lacing his fingers with hers.

"Way more naps sounds good," he agreed. "Can I join?" Before she could answer, they both looked up at the sound of the doorbell from downstairs.

"Alas, interrupted," Maya sighed. "The others are all gone?"

"Afraid so," Lucas quickly kissed her knuckles before climbing off the bed. As soon as he opened the door, the dogs came hurrying back in, resuming their belly guard.

Lucas hurried down, the bell sounding a second time before he reached the door and pulled it open to find…

"Willow, hey," he smiled. "What are you doing here? I mean shouldn't you be taking it easy right now? Here…" he reached out to take the bags she had in both hands. "What's all this?"

"Right, well, I was at home, trying to get the nursery set up, and I started sorting through everything. Some stuff I had too much of, so I thought you guys could use them."

"Wow, yeah, thanks," Lucas nodded, looking into the bags.

"You'll probably get more at the baby shower, now that I think about it but…"

"Spares are good?" he suggested, and Willow smiled, accepting this as solid reasoning.

"Speaking of which, have you figured out a date for that? Riley mentioned you wanted to make it a sur… Hey!" she looked past him, and Lucas turned to find Maya making her way down the stairs.

"Errands, really?" Maya asked her friend and bandmate.

"What, I wasn't about to let you spend that first day off on your own," Willow smiled as they went to hug. The further they got into their pregnancies, they had been getting a kick out of 'bumping' into one another. It wouldn't be long now that Maya would be flying solo on that.

"Oh, step this way," Maya swept out her arm to indicate the couch. They went and sat side by side before Lucas brought over Willow's bags.

"Can I get you something?" he asked them both.

"Ooh, this is the best game," Maya tapped Willow's arm. "He'll get anything, go on, ask," she grinned, looking up to Lucas.

"Oh, you know, there's these cookies I've been meaning to have you try," Willow looked to Maya with a smile, turning to Lucas now and echoing his fiancée's innocently mischievous look. The two of them sitting there, hands locked over their bellies, were like an impassable front.

"Where are these cookies?" he asked.

Once he was gone, Maya and Willow started going through the bags together, discussing the items Willow had brought over, and some of the things she'd kept back at the apartment. Way back on Halloween, when she'd found out she was pregnant, Maya had been sort of relieved to think of the fact that Willow was having a baby, too, that the two of them could go on this journey together, with one of them just further up ahead that the other could sort of learn from her. And now they were here, with Willow due any day…

There had been a few false alarms over the past week. Each time, they'd gotten a call from Lion to let them know, on Willow's request. The first time, they'd actually gotten in the car and started driving to the hospital, only when they'd arrived they had quickly discovered that Willow and Lion's daughter would not be born that day after all. On the second false start, much as Maya had wanted to get out there, Lucas had suggested that this time around they wait and see if it was for real, which quickly proved to be wise. On the third time, two days ago, they'd both received the news with the intent to sit and wait, which was again wise, as it turned out to be another false alarm.

Even though Zola the second had not really come at any of those times, both Maya and Lucas had been filled with a tense sort of feeling every time. Was it really any wonder though, when they themselves were only weeks away from welcoming their son? Now that Willow was almost there, everything was starting to get sort of… more real than ever.

"I can't wait to get to start on the nursery walls," Maya sighed, sitting back and looking at one of the items from Willow's bags, a navy blue onesie covered in tiny yellow stars and crescent moons. It looked so small…

"You have the whole thing designed already, don't you?" Willow chuckled.

"Look who you're talking to, of course I do," Maya looked at her. "You want to see?"

She got up and climbed up back to her room, realizing when she got there that she was still carrying the starry onesie. She smiled again, looking at it, draping it over her belly. Right now, she couldn't wait to see it on Alexander…

"Still not feeling it, Sprout, what are we going to do?" she whispered down to the onesie on her bump. "Can't call you Sprout all your life, can I?"

Leaving the small piece of clothing on the bed to show Lucas later, she took up her baby sketchbook and, because the whole thing still bugged her, the book of names, too. She carried them both back down the hall and started down the stairs. She'd just reached the landing when she got a look at Willow, just sort of hunched forward on the couch, shoulders moving like she was breathing hard…

"Willow?" she asked, moving down the next few steps. "You alright?"

"I-I don't know," Willow's voice trembled just a bit. "I don't know what's real or not anymore."

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, I've got you," Maya hurried as best she could down the rest of the way, putting the books down and moving around to sit by her friend, taking hold of her hand. "What do you want me to do? Should I call Lion?" He'd be at the restaurant right now, in the middle of Sunday Brunch.

"He said it would be today," Willow breathed. "This morning, when we woke up. Looked at me with that sure smile of his and said today was her day, Zola's day. I told him I hoped he was right, because I was tired of false alarms…"

"Does anything feel different than the other times? I don't know, more like 'oh, hey, there's a human coming out of me' and all that?" Maya asked. She was suddenly very aware that they'd sent Lucas off on some stupid cookie run and now it was just the two of them, and she wasn't sure she could drive, which wouldn't be a problem, because both cars were not here… _Lucas…_ False alarm or not, the best she could do was to get him back here, just in case. "Alright, keep breathing like that, you're doing great, I'm just going to-ow! Easy!" she cried out, when Willow squeezed her hand real hard.

"Sorry!" Willow breathed, "I just… uh…" They both looked down at once.

"Well… Good news is I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen when you're not actually about to give birth," Maya blinked. She still had to call Lucas, but right now she was thinking it might be a good idea if she got them on the road as soon as possible.

"Who are you calling?" Willow asked.

"First, cab. Second, Lucas. I'll tell him to swing over to Isabel's and pick up Lion," Maya told her as she pulled her phone from her pocket.

"I don't have my bag, it's back home, it's got everything…" Willow sniffled nervously.

"That's alright, don't worry about it, we'll figure something out, okay?"

X

Lucas had just made it to the bakery Willow had sent him to, picking up the all-important cookies. He pulled one from the box as he walked back to his car and… Okay, yeah, it might have been worth the trip after all. When his phone rang, he stopped mid-bite. _Damn, she has a sixth sense for this…_

"I only took one," he promised as he answered.

What he heard first was someone shouting in pain, and he almost spilled the cookies until he heard another voice, Maya's voice, instructing the other to breathe.

"Maya?" he called.

"Hey, so, change of plans."

Lucas thought for sure he would have been more nervous than this, as he drove as fast as he could without speeding, on his way to Isabel's restaurant. Sure, it wasn't _his_ baby that was about to be born, but with Maya's due date inching its way closer and closer he was sort of thinking about it all the time, and now it was happening for their friends, they were on their way to the hospital, Maya and Willow, while he was tasked with getting Lion and bringing him there. He kept hearing Maya shouting for Willow to breathe, when he'd answered the phone, and right now he was heeding her advice, whether it was meant for him or not.

He reached the restaurant and parked as fast and as neatly as he could before hopping out of his car and hurrying through the door.

"Hello, welcome to…" the girl at the counter started to tell him before he cut her off.

"Hey, sorry, I just need to talk to Lion over there, it's an emergency." The girl's eyes went wide, like she understood what this was about. She waved him through, and Lucas nodded to her in thanks before moving to find his friend. He'd been here, just the night before, picking up Maya from her last shift, and somehow he'd assumed it would be the last time in a long while that he'd be seeing the inside of this building.

"Lucas?" Leona spotted him. "Is everything…"

"Where's Lion?" he asked.

"Kitchen, I think," Leona led him out until they both spotted the guy, tall as ever. He turned around and, when he spotted Lucas, he straightened up at once. He turned to look into the kitchen area and Lucas just made out his telling someone that he had to go. Soon, the two future fathers were hurrying back out of the restaurant and to Lucas' car.

"Is she okay? Where…" Lion asked.

"She came over to the house, wanted to bring some things to Maya. Then they sent me out for cookies, and Maya called to say Willow had gone into labor and they were taking a cab to the hospital."

They were both of them tense as Lucas drove on. Lion tried to reach Willow, but no one picked up her phone. He called Maya next, who told him they'd arrived at the hospital and they were settling Willow in. Lion mentioned her bag, and Lucas could just see indecision in his face, between wanting to fix that and make a stop at the apartment, or just going on straight to the hospital so he could be by her side as soon as possible. In the end, they went with option two, though when he called his brother to tell him what was happening, Lion asked if he might stop by the place and get Willow's bag.

They finally reached the hospital, where they found Maya waiting. She pointed the way for Lion, who disappeared like an arrow in flight, before turning to Lucas and being swept into a hug.

"This was supposed to be our calm day off, right?" she asked him. He kissed the top of her head, taking his first good, deep breath, since he'd been breathing in the sugary treats at the bakery.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

"It's weird, you know, you see people having babies a few times and it's one thing, but then you see someone go into labor when _you're_ about to do the same, and all of a sudden it's something completely new. Should _we_ have a bag ready?"

"I'm going to pretend like I'm knocking on wood right now, we still have some time to go," he shook his head. The thought of their boy being born this early was not one he wanted to entertain.

"Yeah, we do," she hummed.

The next several hours became all about the long wait for Zola Aileen Obi to be born. Maya and Lucas had set about getting the words out to their friends, and said word was received and returned in a deluge of well wishes and promises that they were either on their way or would be there as soon as possible or as soon as they got off work. Little by little, the group of visitors grew, and grew, and most if not all of them seemed to have gotten on the same wavelength when they'd gone seeking presents to bring the mother to be. Her room was soon overtaken with a multitude of turquoise-colored stuffed animals, candies and other treats… Lion's young sisters had even bought turquoise nail polish in the gift shop, which was soon applied to everyone's nails, as a symbol of their wait on Zola the second.

"It'll be us soon," Lucas spoke at one time, because it did feel like they had to acknowledge it, not just in thought. As he said this, Maya was in the midst of coating his nails in turquoise, insisting that this was her relaxing Sunday dream. She looked at him now, and he could see the nerves she'd been trying to push down, just there again on the surface. "You'll do amazing," he promised her.

"It's not just that part that's freaking me out," she admitted, looking back to his hand, planted on her bump like it was a table for her to work off of.

"What is then?" he asked. She wouldn't look up at him to reply, and after a few seconds he sort of knew. She was worried about the part that came after, the one where she had this child's mother.

To him, this sounded ridiculous. They may still have been in college, may have been reaching this part of their lives earlier than they had intended, but this in no way made him believe she was any less capable of being the perfect mother to their son. He had come into their life as such a surprise, yes, but almost as soon as they'd known for sure that he was growing inside her, it was like something had changed in her, he'd seen it. They'd still been rightly terrified of the changes coming into their lives, but at the same time she had been ready for this. Their baby had been so very, very little, and she had loved him, and she had done everything in her power to ensure he would come into the world healthy and aware of this love. He never doubted for one second that she would continue to display this for all the days of their lives.

He couldn't tell her this, not in this specific way. No matter what he thought of her showing doubts toward her capabilities, he couldn't dismiss them so easily when she clearly felt them deeply. All he could do was to try and dislodge them, completely or more likely just enough for her to dislodge them herself.

Before he could do anything about this, they were joined my Willow's grandparents, who had been as good as parents to her for most of her life. While they had been without news for some time, Willow's grandmother, Aileen Regan, had been able to find out more. She had returned to them some time after, with two pieces of information.

The first was that Zola the second was officially among them, and she was doing well. Lucas had looked to Maya at this, sensing a breath of relief rattle through her. That relief was sent rattling in the opposite direction though when Mrs. Regan informed them that there had been some complications during the delivery, where Willow was concerned. For a beat, Lucas didn't think Maya was breathing anymore. Even when they were assured that Willow had pulled through, and that she was now resting, she still looked thrown off-balance.

They were told to go on home for the night, that there was no point staying for the time being. As the others had slowly started to clear out, Lucas told them to go on ahead, that he and Maya would take his car in a few minutes. He looked back to his fiancée, sitting there, rubbing her belly with those turquoise-nailed hands, breathing deep, reassuring herself. She looked up at him, and she looked scared again. He sat with her, showed her his own turquoise nails. It made her laugh despite herself.

"Zola's here," he reminded her. "Willow is okay."

"Zola's here," she repeated. "Willow is okay."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	21. When It Will Be Us

_Chapter 21_  
_When It Will Be Us_

Though they had all been sent on home after this long day of waiting in the hospital, which often felt as though the air was filled with some kind of sleep inducer, Maya and Lucas had not gone to sleep as their roommates had done already. He might have gone, but he could see she wasn't able to turn off all these thoughts and feelings brought on by Willow's delivery, wouldn't be able to go to sleep if she tried, so he would stay up with her until she could.

"We should take all this stuff upstairs," Maya declared, walking into the living room to find Willow's offerings still where they had been left. "Oh, and there's…" she indicated the stain on the couch and down to the floor.

"I'll get on that," Lucas decided, indicating the couch.

"Think you'll be able to get it out?"

"Well, one of the good things about me growing up around my mother is I've picked up on a lot of tips and tricks for stain removal… This one is going to be a bit out of my depth…" he admitted as he gingerly inspected the cushion.

"But it will come in handy when we have a tiny human that pees and poops and pukes all over the place…" Maya chimed in, cringing as she looked on.

"Ah, the three Ps," he nodded 'sagely,' making her laugh. "Will you think any less of me if I call my mother right now?"

"There is no less for you," she assured him. "You've reached levels of high esteem where you've just maxed out," she held up her hand as high as it could go. "Besides, if we have any hope of anyone sitting in that spot ever again, we're going to have to call in the expert."

Getting Melinda Friar on Skype late in the evening, at this point in time, they found, was good for little more than a panic attack. She had immediately gotten under the assumption that Maya had gone into labor, or something else was wrong with the baby, and it had taken her husband's coming along to calm her down again. Finally, they were able to assure her that all was well and that they needed her help with a stain. She'd stopped all at once and looked almost annoyed. Why would they call her at this time of day, making her assume the worst, if this was just about a stain?

Once they had explained to her the nature of this stain however, revealing that Willow had had her baby that day, they had finally gotten access to The Stain Expert. They half expected her to put on one of those magnifying goggles with added lenses to flip into place and see even closer. They showed her 'the site' and she quickly started to instruct her son on what to collect. As he went to do as told, Maya was left with the phone and her future mother-in-law.

"How are you doing, Maya dear?" Melinda asked, sounding like she could just sense the future mother's distress.

"I'm alright," Maya nodded at first, though after a beat it felt like she needed to be more honest. "Yesterday was my last day at work," she reminded her, to which Melinda gave a knowing nod. "And then today was supposed to be about sitting back, kind of taking it easy. Instead, there was Willow, and the hospital, and… It all made everything feel so real, about our own baby coming."

"Oh, yes, I went through something similar with a woman I'd met in Lamaze class," Melinda recalled. "Happened right in class, so you can only imagine, a load of heavily pregnant women swarming about," she laughed, which made Maya laugh along, only for a moment, as she was then reminded of how the day had turned out in the end.

"There were complications with Willow," she revealed, and Melinda gasped. "Her grandmother said she was okay now, but…"

"But you spiraled," Lucas' mother guessed.

"Pretty much," Maya nodded. _Zola is here. Willow is okay._

"They're going to take great care of her," Melinda promised.

"No, I know," Maya insisted. "I just…"

Her free hand had been resting at her belly all this time, slowly moving along its curve as she spoke. Now she looked at herself, thinking about her boy in there. He would move, and he would kick, acting at times like he had a mind of his own already, and still… If he was pulled from her now, he'd be left to face some tough odds of survival. As much as she told herself that it was different with Willow, that she actually _was_ full term, that Zola was good to come out when she did… Something had gone wrong. Mother and daughter were both going to be fine, that was what they were being told, but no matter how many times she heard it, how many times she reminded herself, it still felt like her heart would burst out of her chest as she contemplated what could or would happen when her son started to come.

"This is going to be most wonderful and the most terrifying moment of your life, it's normal to be scared," Melinda assured her. "I wish I could tell you it would get easier the closer you'll come to it."

"Great…" Maya breathed, just as Lucas returned with the supplies. She gave him back the phone so he could get started. While he did this, she went about gathering Willow's gifts, returning them to their bag. Between that and the great basket from her co-workers at the restaurant, she'd have plenty of things to sort through, and she sort of wished she could bring them to the house already, to put them in the nursery, the kitchen, the bathroom, anywhere the items would be put to use. That wasn't likely to happen for a week at least, so she set the thought aside.

Once the bags had been collected, the only things that remained out of place were two books on the coffee table. She took them up as she sat on the other end of the large couch. The first was her baby sketchbook. She'd brought it down to show Willow her design for Zola's nursery walls, but then she'd never gotten the chance to show it to her. She turned the pages now, finding the sketch she'd done. She knew she could have delegated the task, finding some people with a steady hand to reproduce the thing, but she really just wanted to be part of this process, this gift to her friend. It wasn't like she couldn't do it now. She'd have help, she could pace herself and do fine. Now with Willow in the hospital, possibly for a few days… Wouldn't it be a nice thing to come home to, finding their daughter's place in their home had been prepared for her?

She put a pin in the thought as she kept leafing through the sketchbook. All these things she'd drawn and written, to immortalize moments, important turns in this journey of bringing this baby boy into the world… _Blue hands on a belly… Contact… Lullabies…_ Nowhere, not on any one page, had she written his name. Wouldn't that be something she'd want to put in there? For some reason, she was surprised, like surely she would have put it somewhere by now, but… no. She recalled that book Melinda Friar had let her borrow, the names in the margin, the one name circled, the right name…

For a few months now she'd been going around with a name in her head, a name that was supposed to be _his_ name, but… More and more, something about it just didn't feel right anymore, and she didn't understand why. More than that, she worried about what might happen if they couldn't decide, couldn't make up their minds. He needed a name, he… _Alexander_… She repeated it over and over in her head, but it was like every time she did this her certainty decreased again and again.

That was why she'd grabbed that second book along with the sketchbook earlier, before coming down again and finding her friend in distress. Hadn't they both scoured these pages already, Lucas and her? _So many times…_ But then maybe the problem was that, all along, they'd been looking through this book more out of curiosity than anything, seeing as they'd already decided. Alexander for a boy, Marianne for a girl. And then he had been a boy, so Alexander it was. But now…

She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining those nine letters floating before her and then flying away, leaving her with a blank slate all over again. Letting out a breath, she opened her eyes again and opened the book, and she started to read through the various names, hoping that one of them would just go and jump out at her as The Right One. She briefly looked up from where she sat, to where Lucas sat on his knees, working to scrub at the stain as his mother instructed him from the phone, sitting on the ground near him. It was nearly midnight and there he was, doing everything in his power to attend to this situation when he probably wanted to get to sleep like the others. But she couldn't sleep, so he wasn't going to.

She hadn't been joking when she'd said they could name their son after him. Sure, the joke was easy, he'd be Junior, _June-ior the Junebug…_ But beyond all that, who could there be out there worthier of having their name attached to the baby growing in her belly? They _had_ pushed the name into a middle name slot, though mostly in order to preserve this sort of naming scheme the Friar men had had going on for a few generations now, bearing their fathers' first names as their middle names. They could always keep it that way, hold up the pattern, but call him by that middle name, or some diminutive of it. He'd be one of those people you'd get to know for a while, only to discover their name wasn't their first name.

_Luke… Luke Friar… No, too short… Said Maya Hart… Lucky… Ha! Lucky Friar, give him a chance at least…_

She let out a frustrated sigh, which drew Lucas' attention over to her. She just smiled, waving it off. On the phone, Melinda asked if anything was wrong, and Lucas repeated to her that it was nothing and got back to work.

Maya went back to reading through the name book, sometimes jumping through the alphabet instead of going through everything in order. She'd make little noises of surprise or amusement from time to time, learning what one name or another meant. She'd read one or another out to Lucas sometimes, and he'd have a similar reaction. Once Melinda had understood what they were up to, she'd started calling out recommendations from the phone.

"Alright, I think I have everything under control here, you're probably going to be turning in soon. Night, Mom, thanks for the help," Lucas finally told her before ending the call.

"Wow, she's going to tear you a new one for hanging up that fast," Maya chuckled.

"Sometimes it's worth it," he stood up and stepped back. "What do you think?" She looked over the top of the book to the part of the couch and floor he'd been working on. "It still needs to dry. And I'll probably have to give it another go in the morning," he scratched at the back of his neck as he inspected it, too.

"Looks great. Now, come here," she tapped the space on the couch next to her. He happily obliged, sitting and letting out a tired breath as she held up her arm to invite him to lean his head against her shoulder, which he did. "Better?" she smiled, leaning her head to the top of his.

"Always," he promised, reaching to set his hand over her bump, giving it a little rub that made her chuckle. "Does it tickle?" he asked.

"No, it's good, keep going," she insisted, so he happily obliged. "I think I've gotten to the point where I have to completely nix the whole Alexander situation. Is that okay with you?"

"We said you'd get to decide if he was a boy," Lucas pointed out.

"I know, but that doesn't mean you don't get a say in what our son's name will be," she pointed out.

"Alright, good point," he nodded, hand still trailing along the curve of her belly. "My parents picked my name out of a book like this. Yours, do you know?"

"Oh, I know," she laughed, which instantly made him look up at her, curious. "My mother told me that when she'd feel me moving, it would be like I was this little bee inside her, buzzing along. And there was this kids' show she used to watch, cartoon or something, and it was all about a bee called Maya. And that's how I ended up with my name."

"That explains so much," he teased, earning himself a light kick to the leg. "Any shows about a little boy sprout?"

"Not that I can think of, no, so back to the book, I guess," she propped up the thing on her knee and opened it again to where she'd stopped, somewhere in the letter N.

"How are you feeling now?" Lucas asked after a minute. "Do you feel calmer? Enough to go up to bed?" She set down the book again.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I can think I'll be fine, but then when I actually go and lie down, I'm scared I'll just start in with the nightmares again, or I'll just toss and turn the whole time."

"I'll be right there," he reminded her. "Right next to you."

"I know," she smiled. "Sometimes even that's not enough to keep me from going there."

"Is there anything else we can do? Anything more?"

"I…" she sighed, thinking for a moment as she set the name book aside. It thumped against her sketchbook and she looked down to it. She had a thought. "It's too late right now for us to do anything, but it might help if I knew we were _going_ to do something, tomorrow."

"Like what?" Lucas asked. She opened the sketchbook, flipped the pages until she found the right one and showed it to him.

"We get Zola's nursery ready."

The next morning felt as though it arrived in a blink, but all in all both Maya and Lucas woke up fairly rested, all things considered. And now… Now they had a plan.

Alright, so first they had classes, most of them anyway. They couldn't skip those no matter how much they wanted to. The reason may have felt good to them, but their professors would not be likely to feel the same way. That didn't have to stop them completely. Throughout breaks, they could write one another, and Maya certainly took up the charge in calling up the troops for Operation Zola, knowing she'd find every last one of them ready and willing to help in what way they could offer.

At lunch time, rather than to treating themselves to a trip to the café, Maya and Lucas had gone by the now all too familiar hospital cafeteria to grab something before making their way up to Willow's room. Lucas could sense Maya was growing nervous all over again. It wasn't so bad as the night before, but it was enough that he casually reached for her hand and held it as they walked.

Maya didn't know what hit her the most, actually seeing Willow as she sat up in her bed awake and well, or seeing in her face that she understood exactly how Maya must have been feeling about this turn of events. She reached out her hand and Maya moved across the room to take it before carefully hugging her.

"I'm okay… We're okay…" Willow was quietly telling her, and Maya let out a breath, nodding along. When she pulled back, she carefully sat on the edge of the bed, where Willow briefly recounted the events of the previous day, after they'd been parted, all the way through the first half of this new day. She didn't hide the more difficult parts, knowing it wouldn't do Maya any good, but she also highlighted the good parts, the greatest of all being when she first got to hold the baby girl Lion was presently bringing over to meet her godmother.

"Hey…" Maya breathed, instantly holding out her arms to receive her. It was a weird sort of thought to realize she presently held two babies, one in her arms and one in her belly, but it only stayed with her for a moment as she soon found herself simply captivated by the presence of Zola Aileen Obi before her eyes. Of all the things she could have been offered to help pull back the worries she'd been having since the previous night, the newborn girl was like a miracle balm. All was well. "I was going to tell you not to freak out if you saw me crying, but I think we're already there," she laughed, eyes pooling with happy tears. The girl looked so very at peace in her arms, and Maya could have sat there for hours just holding her and watching her.

Eventually, she'd had to pass her to Lucas, letting him have a go, knowing he had been as anxious as she was for this moment, whether he said it or not. He walked over to the bed, and she could practically hear his heart smashing against his chest. _This isn't even our baby, what's he going to be like when it is?_

_Oh, he'll definitely bawl his eyes out…_

Lucas carefully picked up baby Zola from Maya's arms, carefully nestling her in his own arms as though he'd been holding babies his whole life. As they'd experienced before, it wasn't as though this was the first time they'd held babies or seen one another holding babies, but now, with their own getting closer and closer to being born, the feeling was becoming something else, something completely new and entirely more vibrant, more emotional.

"Well, hello," he smiled down to the girl blinking up at him. "It's good to finally meet you. Wait until you see how many people have been waiting to meet you, too. You're kind of famous."

By the time they'd finally handed Zola back to her parents and started on their way out of the hospital to get back to class, both of them were left feeling almost elated enough that they could have been flying. For as much as they'd worried the night before, now all was good, and the future looked bright. Exactly how long that feeling would hold out was anyone's guess, but they wouldn't worry themselves over that, not now.

Instead, what they had in mind was a plan for the days to come and the work ahead of them in readying the apartment for Willow and Lion's return and for Zola's arrival.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	22. Learning to Breathe

_Chapter 22_  
_Learning to Breathe_

"Do you see it?" Maya asked, looking to the screen as she tried to position herself in some way so that the camera would manage to capture the movement of her belly as she felt the baby moving within her. _She_ could see it very well, and it was so captivating for her to consider her small boy of a sprout in there as she could actually watch her skin move, but then whether that movement translated to what her father would see on his computer screen, back in New York…

"I do, I see it, right there," Kermit pointed with an awed sort of smile. "He's active."

"You have no idea," she chuckled as she moved to sit again. "Sometimes it feels like he might actually burst out."

"Like Alien," he smirked.

"Why does everybody say that?" she cringed.

"Sorry, sorry," he held up a hand in apology, and she smiled. As disturbing as the image he'd conjured in her mind could be, it also came in the middle of their latest call, and all she could think was that it had all been getting more and more anticipated. She didn't know what she'd been expecting, when she'd agreed to have these weekly calls. Did she tell herself that it would all go horribly and she'd just end up telling herself 'there, see, I was right to keep him away' or something?

Instead, what she was getting to feel, beyond her wildest dreams, was that this whole 'probation' thing she had him on might now be getting to a point where they could take a few more chances. And she was about to take a real big one.

"I know I didn't come on my due date when I was born, what about Sam and the others?"

"Oh, well Sam was actually born right on the day we were expecting him, smack in the middle of it. We used to joke around and call him the Bullseye Kid," Kermit revealed, making her laugh. "Now, Cara, she came twelve days late," he went on, and Maya felt immediate sympathy for Abigail. "You know Abby, she's one of the most calm and collected people I've ever met, but those last days she was just beside herself, trying anything to get her to come."

"What finally did it?" Maya asked, but just as soon, "On second thought, maybe don't tell me."

"Okay," Kermit nodded. "After that… Eliza came a whole six weeks early," he told her, and she hated that she had a list of potential problems rolling through her head automatically, from all she'd read and watched in the last months. "She was… so small, I'd be scared to even touch her, but then they'd put her on my chest and we'd sit there, me and her," he recalled, touching his chest where she would have been with a smile. "Then Wyatt, he came four days early. After the girls, with one very late and one so very early, we didn't know what to expect with him, but he hung in there until near enough to the date that the rest didn't matter."

"Right," Maya breathed, considering all this. What it really boiled down to, she guessed, was that there really was no telling. They had a due date, sure, but odds were that wouldn't end up being her son's birthday. It made planning some things a bit more complicated, especially one thing.

"Why'd you want to know?" her father asked, like he'd sensed her question was only half asked at this point.

"I have a friend, her mother's this business woman who has to travel a lot for her work, she's got a lot of money and a lot of access to planes," she started, and she could see her father wasn't sure where this was going. "So, if on the day that I go into labor, when it's the real deal and the baby's coming, I were to ask her to set up a flight, for six passengers out of New York to fly to Austin…" She looked at him as he processed this, as he got to understand what she was getting at.

"Six…" he repeated, and she nodded. "That's… the kids, and Abigail, and… and me?"

"I… I'd like that, I mean… if you all could be there," she told him, feeling as though they were both holding their breath at the same time. Kermit responded at first with a nod, looking as though it was all he could do for now, or else he'd cry. Finally though, he pulled himself together.

"You just give me a call, tell me where that plane is, and I'll get us there." That was the gamble, right there. She had asked, he had promised. Now she had to wait and see if he would keep it.

Her conversation with her father left her with a lot to think about, beyond the invitation she'd handed him. As to her involving Sophie and her mother's access to planes, there had never been any sort of concern. Later that day, when she'd asked Sophie about it, she'd been saying yes almost before Maya had the chance to finish her question. But after that there was something else, something she hadn't even considered up to now, and she was sort of upset at herself for not even considering it.

All this time, they had been working toward getting things ready for them after the birth as far as the house, and Lucas' transfer. He'd started looking for jobs, too. _Jobs, two of them, plus school, plus her and the baby…_ As much as she hated the thought of him wearing himself too thin, she couldn't pretend like it wouldn't be necessary, if they intended to support themselves and their son on their own as much as possible. They'd been preparing for all that, and then they'd been doing everything to ensure their boy would be born healthy, and that they would know how to care for him. They'd taken a first-aid course, and they had other pre-natal classes still to attend, and over at the house, in the midst of the work he and the others had been doing, Lucas had integrated child proofing into all the rooms they worked on.

All this work, all this preparation, and something had completely escaped them. All their people were here, in Houston. The friends they'd made in those classes they'd already attended were here, as would the people they'd meet in their next classes. It wasn't as though they'd stop talking to them once they moved back to Austin, but they _would_ be two hours apart, and she wouldn't have that circle they'd sort of grown to appreciate.

"Then let's find a class out there," Lucas simply told her when she mentioned this to him.

"What, on the weekends while you're working at the house? It has to be both of us," she pointed out.

"If it's in on the weekend, I will go with you instead of going to the house," he shook his head. "If it's on a weeknight, we'll just go. You wanted to take those classes at the pool, let's see about the classes they have back in Austin."

"That's so much driving though…" she hesitated, even though the prospect was one she already felt would make sense.

"You call it driving, I call it spending time with you and making sure we get what we need," he shrugged. It made her smile. "Okay? It's not a problem," he promised, moving up to her until he could kiss her.

"Okay," she breathed and nodded. "But that's not the only thing. What about Dr. Wilkes?" He opened his mouth to reply, but then he closed it again, realizing what she meant. He almost did a perfect 'smack your hand to your forehead out of sudden and complete understanding that you messed up.'

All this time, they had been going to Dr. Wilkes, and it was sort of understood that she'd be the one delivering their baby boy. Except on the day their son was born, unless he came remarkably ahead of time – which they did not want – then Dr. Wilkes would be here, in Houston… while they were back living in Austin.

"I didn't even…" he finally spoke. "We must have talked about moving back home at some point in an appointment, right?"

"Not really, no," Maya shook her head.

They kind of loved Dr. Wilkes. She'd always been so good to them, especially in winding back whatever thought was presently worrying them when Maya alone or Maya and Lucas went in to her office for one appointment or another. As good as she was though, she would still be miles away when their baby would be born, which would mean they'd need to find someone else.

"I'll have to tell her when I see her next week." This would be one of those appointments where, due to conflicting schedules and availability, Lucas wouldn't be able to go with her, and much as it never made him happy to have to miss any of those checks, this one only made him feel worse. They'd forgotten something important, and he should have been there with her when they dealt with it. Seeing his face, Maya had sort of guessed this concern playing at the back of his mind. She had a quick fix for this. "I'll call my mom, see if she wants to come along, make an afternoon of it."

On Friday afternoon, after both of them had finished classes for the day, they'd gotten in the car and started off for Austin. After a weekend off which had quickly turned into less of a relaxing thing than they would have liked, he could have taken another week off, but then all this talk about the things they had miscalculated, coupled with the fact that Maya was coming to cross into her thirtieth week, it only heightened the knowledge that they were running out of 'before' time. They were moving in a little over five weeks, and much as he intended to make a big push once that happened, he didn't want to rely on that and end up trying to bite off more than he could chew. His father had told him, on one of their past weekends at the house, that it wouldn't be a good idea anyway if he went and exhausted himself out just before he ended up with a newborn to look after.

Besides, this weekend was not one they could skip, and on the whole they wouldn't even be getting to do that much work on the house. There were other plans. They were supposed to look in on the venue for the wedding, they had to see about invitations… and he had job interviews. He'd managed to line up three on Saturday and four on Sunday. He hoped that, from all of this, he would be able to lock down everything he needed, but if he didn't then he'd have to keep at it the next week. As it was, he was barely managing to put in any time at the bookstore _or_ the clinic, and if it wasn't that he had very understanding bosses on both sides, he would have lost those jobs a long time ago.

As for Maya, Isabel had worked it out with her so she'd get paid leave even though she wasn't going back to work for her, but even so, between the two of them, they weren't pulling in that much, which left them trying not to draw so much attention to it that their families would feel the need to step in again, but at the same time they really needed to stay on top of things, which meant he had to find work in Austin.

"I could write songs!" Maya declared out of the blue while they were driving.

"You _do_ write songs," he pointed out, not sure whether she was getting specifically forgetful or if he just wasn't getting what she meant.

"No, I mean for other people," she explained.

"Oh…" he blinked. That actually made a whole lot more sense. And it might have been a pretty good idea. "You could try and sell some of your art, too, couldn't you?"

"Yeah, yeah!" she tapped his arm and grinned like 'good thinking!' He smiled back at her. He always liked seeing her in a good mood, but this was even more than a good mood, it was a plan, it was inspiration, and that was where she shined the brightest. "I can start now, and I can do some more after the baby's born while I'm at home with him, and…" She trailed off in thought and he looked at her again.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I just went down a sort of thought hole about when I'll have to go back to school, and work, and I'll have to leave him. He's not even born and I'm already developing 'issues,' great…" she groaned. Lucas was caught between finding her cute and not wanting her to worry herself too much, but then she shook her head sat back up. "Not there yet, not gonna start with that," she declared. "I need… Can you get my bag?" she asked, once traffic had forced them to slow to a stop.

"Yeah," he reached into the back and got the bag,

"Get the green notebook there, with the pen clipped in the ring, it's all I need." He pulled it from her bag, set the bag back down, and handed the notebook and pen over, just in time to move forward again. For a while, she wrote and wrote. It looked to him more like a list than anything else, but she looked satisfied with it, and that was all that mattered.

Whenever they'd be back in Austin for the weekend, it would usually start with dinner on Friday, either at her parents' house or his, but no matter which house they were at, both families would always be in attendance. It was without contest their favorite part of those visits, enough that they were already aiming to keep the practice going once they'd moved into their house. Once that happened, maybe they'd get to play hosts on every third Friday.

This week, they were eating at the Friar house. They were greeted as ever by the eager future grandparents along with their future roommate/great grandfather to their son. Pappy Joe was very clearly looking forward to his relocation. He would move in the day after Maya and Lucas drove in from Houston with the last of their belongings. From what they saw on this Friday upon arriving at the house, he was already set to go. He'd packed up most of his room, save for the things he'd still absolutely need. He also had some boxes in the basement he'd have to bring over, but those had stayed there ever since he'd moved in untouched. Both Maya and Lucas could tell he was looking forward to unpacking these the most. They contained a lot of memories.

"How's everything going with you two?" Tom Friar asked his future daughter-in-law, indicating her and that prominent roundness of hers.

"Trust me, you really don't want to hear about what _I'm_ dealing with these days, symptom wise," Maya bit back a laugh. "But I can tell you all about him," she nodded, pointing to her belly with both index fingers. "He is enjoying the Resort Hotel Maya… Swimming laps, hitting the gym, bit of trampoline… Just good times all around."

"Is that so?" Tom chuckled.

"It's alright though. As far as I'm concerned, he can keep on enjoying the place for another couple months and I'll be happy to host him."

When Melinda Friar came along to greet them, she hugged her son and asked how he was before moving on to his future wife, embracing her before pulling back to get a look at her and starting in with questions about how she was doing, how the baby was doing, all the while showing absolutely no shyness about reaching to touch her belly, hoping perhaps to feel some movement from her grandson. Maya had long needed to reconcile herself with allowing certain people 'freedom of the belly.' Unlike strangers and passing acquaintances, in their case it was more than warranted. All future grandparents and aunts and uncles and close friends had this freedom, true, but 'Granny Mel' absolutely took the most advantage of it. At least Maya had Lucas there to spot when she needed to be cut off by being given something new to think or talk about.

The Hunter Harts were not far behind in arriving for dinner, which made for more congestion in the Friars' front hallway, as the Houston pair were greeted by a couple more of the future grandparents, but also the soon to be Aunt Nellie and Aunt Gracie, and of course the very young Uncle MJ. The twins had the benefit of being quick and small, and they used it to reach their older sister first, two pairs of small hands reaching up and planting themselves where they could.

"Hey…" Maya laughed, reaching a hand to each of their heads as they looked up at her with clear eyes and happy smiles. "Not worried anymore?" she looked to Gracie, who had yet to get entirely used to the feeling of the baby moving. Maya still got a smile, recalling how she'd just yelped and backed away the first time she'd felt a kick. Her sister shook her head.

"Mommy says it means that the baby likes us."

"Yeah, he does!" Maya assured her. "You're going to be _super aunts_," she promised with a touch of drama, which appeared to please both of the soon-to-be four-year-olds.

"He doesn't kick now," Nellie informed her, sounding a bit disappointed.

"I think he's sleeping," Maya explained. "Don't worry, he'll do it later, just wait and I'll let you know, okay?" They nodded, and she was finally able to greet her parents and her little brother. He was one and a half, their MJ, or near enough to it, which was just beyond her… At some point while she'd been talking to her sisters, he had ended up in Lucas' arms. She wasn't surprised at this, and she gave him a look that said as much. MJ, with that blond hair and those blue eyes, looking so much like his mother and like his big sister, had not taken long to settle in his mind like a prelude to their own child, already months ago, when their sprout had still been a secret to his future grandparents.

"You know you're making it kind of hard for me to call you 'kid' anymore," Shawn declared as he came to greet her, with that wistful sort of dad look in his eyes.

"Please keep doing it forever," she told him. If he only knew how good it felt sometimes, throughout these months, to be embraced as someone's child, even as she was preparing to become someone's mother. When she found herself turning to her mother, she got some more of that, and she appreciated every second of it. "We're still good for Wednesday, right?"

"I will be there, I'll pick you up from school," Katy promised. "Haven't done _that_ in a long time."

When the subject had come up, over dinner, that Maya and Lucas were looking to find some prenatal classes and maybe some water aerobics, Katy had quickly jumped in with suggestions, for places to go as much as for places to avoid, and she offered to take her around a couple places the following morning, an offer which Maya took at once.

The next morning, Maya woke up to no Lucas at her side but three eager dogs staring back at her from her bedside. It always cheered her up beyond measure to be reunited with Ghost, and Queen, and Tuck, and she reached out her hand, which signalled them to come nearer. Pulling herself in a seated position, with her feet reaching the ground, the dogs huddled around her and she petted each one in turn. She was still at this when Lucas returned, she discovered, from having taken a shower.

"Well, good morning to you, too," she had to tease him with a smirk. He walked over, leaning over the dogs to kiss her and raining droplets of water on her and the dogs, who either took offense for it or did just as Trix and Lou did back home.

"Help me pick a shirt?" Lucas asked, moving to the dresser. They both had some of their clothes at all times in both his old room at his parents' house and her old room, here at hers.

"A shirt that says 'please hire me, I'm about to have one more mouth to feed?'" Maya guessed, still casually petting the dogs. "Where are you interviewing today?"

"Uh, a bookstore, an office, and a pet store," he listed off.

"All good things," she nodded. He held up two shirts. She made an innocent face. "I need to see them on you."

"You _have_ seen them on me," he pointed out. She shrugged.

"I forgot… Pregnancy brain, you know," she smiled.

After a brief fashion show, the outfit was selected, Lucas finished getting dressed, and once Maya was ready, too, they went off to have breakfast with the family before he had to head on his first interview. Shortly after he'd gone, Maya left with her mother to go and check out the places she had to show her. She guessed if there was one upside to the fact that they needed to do this now all of a sudden was that she got to do these things with her mother. Even though they had gotten to see each other over the last few months, and she'd been able to call her for anything, it had still felt as though what she was missing all along was the chance to experience some of the things that were happening to her with her mother by her side.

"Once you've seen your doctor back in Houston, I'll see about getting you in with Dr. Tanaka. She delivered Nellie, Gracie and MJ, and she is wonderful," Katy told her as they walked out of the building where Maya had just signed herself and Lucas up for four consecutive Friday evening prenatal classes. It would mean starting their family dinners a bit later than usual, but everyone would understand _and_ it wouldn't mean another trip into Austin every week.

"I remember her, she was really nice," Maya replied, feeling a small release of stress at the thought of passing from Dr. Wilkes to someone who wasn't a complete stranger.

When they reached the indoor pool, Maya was reaching for the door when she spotted someone moving to exit from the other side, and in the pause they both took before figuring out who would go first… they recognized each other.

"Ainsley!" Maya smiled, looking to her former classmate but also to the toddler in her arms, who looked about a year old.

"Maya, hey!" Ainsley smiled back, approaching her even as her gaze couldn't help travelling down to her belly. The two of them hugged briefly before making introductions.

"This is my mother, Katy," Maya told Ainsley. "Mom, this is Ainsley Ellis. She graduated with me and the others."

"Thought that might be it," Katy nodded, holding out her hand to shake, which was made just a bit complicated for Ainsley, between the boy lightly dozing in one arm, and the large bag hanging from her other shoulder, but they managed.

"And this little guy is my son. His name is Cameron," she declared with a proud smile.

"He looks just like you," Maya beamed. "I…" she started to ask, some quick math happening in her head. Her former classmate understood this soon enough, so she filled in the blanks.

"Found out I was pregnant a couple months after prom, so that changed a few things," she explained with a nod. Maya remembered Ainsley was supposed to go to school in New York. "But that's alright, we're making things work, me and him." She didn't elaborate, but Maya took from this statement the likelihood that she was raising the boy on her own. If he'd been conceived at prom, Maya remembered who Ainsley's date had been and… well, truth be told, she couldn't say she was surprised he'd bail on her. "Cam turned one last February. Day after Valentine's, go figure. And now you," she nodded to Maya's belly, detaching them from the subject of her own baby story. "Are you and Lucas Friar still…"

"Still, very," Maya confirmed with a nod and a smile, tugging the chain with her engagement ring from under her shirt.

"Wow, that did _not_ come from one of my counters," Ainsley admired the ring. "I work at the mall, jewelry section," she explained. "Anyway, congratulations!" she hugged Maya again. "When are you due?"

"June," Maya replied, smiling internally as she still just heard Melinda Friar calling him her Junebug. "Boy, too," she added, which made Ainsley smile once more.

"We should get together sometime," she went on, like a grand idea had come to her. "Anything I can do to help, or… Wait, aren't you guys out in Houston now?" she recalled.

"We were, but we're transferring back in a few weeks, so we can be closer to our families again," Maya told her. This made Ainsley reach into her pocket, pulling out her phone and briefly scrolling through her contacts. She showed it to Maya. "Yup, still good," she nodded. "Yours?"

"Hasn't changed either. Call me anytime."

"You, too," Maya told her, beaming.

After Ainsley had headed off with her son, Maya watched her go. The two of them had been standing there, talking to one another, and she couldn't actually see her own face as the conversation had gone on, but she had a feeling the two were similar. They were both in need of a circle of friends, of mothers like them. And now they had found one another, which was a start.

When Lucas returned from his interviews that afternoon, he looked somewhere between anxious and motivated. Maya asked how it had gone.

"I don't know, good, I think, but… You know when you look at the person that's giving the interview and you just can't say if they like you or not? That was me, on all three of those. I think I did well, but I'm not going to know for sure until they call me back… if they call me back…" He sat next to her, sparing a moment to greet the sprout before turning back to look at her. "What about you, how did it go today?"

"Good," she nodded. "We've got our classes, Friday nights, managed to get in on one that starts next week. Mom said she'd try and get me in with her doctor after we see Wilkes on Wednesday. Then we went to the pool and guess who we ran into." He had nothing. "Ainsley Ellis."

"Oh, how's she doing?" he asked, recalling their former classmate. He'd known her since they were both very young, having been in classes with her older sister, Allison, until he'd repeated the seventh grade and found himself trailing another Ellis girl.

"She has a one-year-old son named Cameron." He blinked, surprised. "She didn't say, but my money's on Brian Connelly." Lucas' face scrunched in dislike. "Yeah, I don't think he's in the picture anymore. Anyway, we didn't exactly exchange numbers because we already had them in our phones from high school times, but we're going to try and keep in touch. She's living back here now, so once you and I move into the house…" she smiled.

"Definitely," he agreed.

"Also, signed up for the water aerobics class, Saturday and Sunday mornings," she revealed with even more pride. They didn't even have to make any extra trips into the city, they were going to be here anyway. "The woman I talked to said that once I started to go I'd be able to pick up on some things I could do back in Houston throughout the week, to keep things going, and then here, too, after the move."

"I love seeing you like this," he told her, holding out his arm until she scooted herself nearer.

"It doesn't suck," she agreed. "You're going to crush those interviews tomorrow. What do you have for those?"

"Another bookstore, animal shelter, vet clinic, and the museum," he listed off. The last one, he knew, would make her smile. She kept referring to it as 'the return of the blazer.'

"You need to practice, you _have_ to be rusty after two years."

"Who says I _have_ to be rusty?" he asked, in mock affront.

"Me, I just said it," she looked up at him, stuck her tongue out.

"I'll take that challenge. Loser gets a foot massage," he declared, making her sit up again, while he moved to aim this speech at her belly. For the next two hours or so, she sat there on the bed, while he laid on his stomach and spoke at their son, telling him all about an exhibit he couldn't even see in such a way that he might as well have been looking right at it. All the while, Maya would smile, or chuckle, at once impressed that he really did remember it, and also amused at the exaggerated voice he provided for their sprout. When he was done, he looked back at her and she pressed her hands together in a bit of golf clapping.

"I take back everything I said," she bowed her head. "But I did lose, so…" she wiggled her toes.

"I will humbly accept victory," he gave a slight bow before moving to sit at the foot of the bed and pulling her right foot into his hands.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	23. And Then We Dance

_Chapter 23_  
_And Then We Dance_

Some mornings, Lucas would wake up and hear something like a grunt, or a huff, a deep breath. He would open his eyes, knowing of course that it would be Maya but needing to know what was going on. Half the time she'd still be asleep, but she'd be awake other times, too, whether or not she'd make it obvious. There'd be some thing or another causing her some kind of discomfort, and he would try and do his best to relieve her of it, but that didn't always work. He didn't know who'd get more frustrated when that happened, because as much as he might feel helpless over not being able to do more, to carry some of the load… He knew she was finding it hard to find balance between not making him feel… exactly what he was feeling… and admitting her own discomfort.

When he woke up that Sunday morning, he could hear her and feel her moving about, and he opened his eyes to find exactly what he'd expected to find. Maya was in that lightly awake stage, where she'd either go all the way back into asleep or continue on her way to being wide awake, depending on whether or not she found a way to get comfortable again. With that big pillow of hers, they couldn't exactly go for the old spooning position as they slept, but they'd be turned toward one another, and when he'd wake up and see that crease in her brow he would reach over and take her hand, slowly drawing his thumb along the back of her hand, hoping she'd get back to sleep. This time, it didn't work, as she finally opened her eyes.

"Hey…" he whispered. "What do you need?"

"This is good," she promised, eyes turned to his hand holding hers. "I'm going to have to get up in a minute, not looking forward to that."

"After you get back, there might be another pre-interview fashion show," Lucas offered as something of an incentive. It made her smile, so he counted this as a success.

This would be a charged day, for him especially. Two interviews this morning, followed by lunch and checking on the wedding venue, and then two more interviews, and dinner, before he and Maya started back for Houston, in time to go to class in the morning with a good night's sleep.

When Lucas was gone, off to his first morning interview, Maya left the Friars' house, too, taking her notebook and pen along with her before going on a walk which eventually brought her to Asher and Joey's uncle's diner. She had maintained a solid relationship with Fernando Garcia over the time since she'd stopped working for him here, and she had been sure that he must have known about her and the baby, through her family stopping in, or his talking to his nephews, or his sister, Isabel. And then she'd walked through the door of the diner, and he'd seen her, and his hands had fumbled and let slip the plate he was holding, which crashed on the floor and shattered. Maya flinched, like his surprise had echoed back on to her.

"At least it was empty…" she offered with a shy smile. "I mean… sorry, I didn't mean to startle you… Hey…"

"It was an old plate," Fernando brushed this off, motioning for one of the servers to grab a broom and sweep up the pieces before moving up to greet her, in the kind of hug that confirmed to her he genuinely had no idea she was pregnant.

"I thought you knew. Didn't Isabel say anything? Or Asher, or…"

"Now that I think about it, I think they did, but they never said the words and it went over my head. They must all have assumed someone else had said so. Look at you…" he stood back, looking her over. It was always different when people had known her longer, and Fernando had known her since she was thirteen years old. "Lucas?" he guessed, and she nodded, and there was that look again. The evidence may not have been as visible on him as it was on her, but the man had known Lucas even longer than he'd known her, known him since he and Asher and Dylan and Zay were little kids, and now he was about to be a father.

"We haven't sent out invitations yet, but we'd love to have you there when we get married in September," she told him, and the man let out a great laugh before embracing her again. Of course, he'd be there.

As she took a seat in one of the booths with her notebook, he insisted that whatever she wanted, to eat or drink, was his treat. It left her with a little while to focus on this new project, started on the drive into Austin on Friday evening. She would offer her services, in songs, in drawings, in paintings… in art. She didn't really know how she was supposed to fix any kind of fees, but she could figure that out later. As far as the song writing went, the time she had spent performing with TXNY had brought her into contact with a great number of other performers and aspiring singers, so she could put this offer out to all of them and see what came of it. And then for the rest… She'd have to get a look at what she already had on hand, things she could see herself putting up for sale, and from there she could start creating pieces specifically to be sold, open herself up to commissions…

Looking at all she'd written down so far, clearly coming up with ideas was not a problem. Were there problems? Well, maybe one… As confident as she generally was, in day to day life, right now, she was discovering something shy in her, shy or just… uncertain of what would come of this project of hers. Would she even be part of this band anymore? She'd be out here, with her baby, looking after him… What was she going to do, just keep going back to Houston whenever they had band things? Pack him up in his car seat and bring him along?

No, that wasn't going to work, it was… It was over. She wouldn't be able to carry on with them. It was a heartbreaker of a realization, but when it came right down to it she just cared about the band too much to hold it down by trying to shape it around the life she was making with Lucas, with their sprout. TXNY could survive without her.

She was sure it would have been a harder choice to make, to step away from the band she had helped create, with so many followers near and far and still so much space to grow. But in the end it really had been easy. Her son was always going to be her top priority, as he had been from day one, and as soon as she'd understood what she needed to do there had been no doubt, only clarity. She would have to tell the others…

_Lucas: Back from morning interviews, where are you?_

_Maya: I stopped in at the diner after my walk._

_Lucas: We'll meet you there._

Maya smiled to herself, thinking of how Fernando might react when Lucas arrived. The Friars hadn't arrived yet by the time her parents and her siblings walked through the door. The twins hurried over to their big sister, who had moved in anticipation of their lunch party's size. They were excited at the prospect of going to see the place where Maya and Lucas would be having their ceremony and reception. Whatever they'd heard so far had left them picturing something sort of impressive in their three-year-old minds.

When Lucas and his parents walked through the door, the father-to-be was quickly accosted by the man who would treat his nephews and their friends to ice cream whenever they'd come in from their childhood baseball games, going back to days when not one of their feet would touch the ground as they climbed on to the stools lining the counter. He'd exercised loads of caution in hugging Maya earlier, but he let his joy for the two of them be expressed in full force when it came to Lucas. By the time he was let go, he looked like he'd just been on one of those carnival rides where they strapped you to the walls and made you spin around. Maya was still laughing in her hand as he came over to join her.

"He didn't know," she told him.

"I guessed that," Lucas blinked.

"I haven't even told him we're moving back yet," Maya whispered to him and he looked like he was trying to keep a straight face so Fernando wouldn't look at them even though he was about to laugh. "How did it go this morning?" Maya asked. So far, he would have had the interview with a second bookstore and then an animal shelter.

"Good, I think," he told her. That was usually his stance, as far as interviews went, unless they'd been notably bad. As far as he was concerned, they had gone well, but his prospective employers might have seen otherwise or found someone they liked better. He wouldn't know until he heard back.

"Which bookstore did you like best, yesterday's or today's?" she asked, curious. He thought about it for a beat before holding up a single finger. "Yesterday's," she translated, and he nodded. "What about the shelter, how was it?"

"Really nice," Lucas told her, recalling the place. "If that's the only place that wants me though, we'll be in trouble," he sighed.

"Hey, come on," she tapped his arm, almost scolding. "I know that when I say it and when they say it the meaning wouldn't be the same, but you are a catch, okay?" He smiled. "If they don't want you, then they're the ones with the problem."

"I'll take your word for it," he promised.

"Good," she smiled back.

"And how was your morning?" he asked, spotting her notebook, closed on the table top in front of her. She absently touched the cover, thinking of what she'd written down… and what she'd decided. She didn't want to get into it now.

"Just a lot of… stuff," Maya told him, with a discreet tip of the head to her notebook. He would understand what she was talking about, which was a good thing, because neither of them wanted to say anything that would get their parents asking why they were putting so much emphasis on alternative ways of making more money.

"Good?" he asked, just as discreet.

"So far, so good," she nodded. _Also, I've decided to quit the band._

The conversation over lunch had soon turned to the wedding, which was now less than five months away. The venue had been picked through research and the occasional drive by, but they had not gotten to see it in person yet. The fact that it was available for the date they had picked had pushed them just a bit to book it on a mix of trust and word of mouth.

Deviating from the wedding yet to come, talk had moved to past weddings, those of the parents around the table. They had all been at Katy and Shawn's wedding, of course, save for the three children who had not been born at the time. As for Katy's first wedding, to Kermit Hart, there had been little to tell, according to her… A courthouse, a couple of determined eighteen-year-olds, and a – rented – maternity wedding dress.

"All I remember was I kept looking at the wreath on the wall behind Kermit, like it was right over his head… It was almost Christmas," she added, catching a few confused looks. She cleared her throat and turned to the Friars. "What about you two, it had to be something, yeah?" There had been absolutely no hesitation out of Melinda Friar to go ahead and take the stage here. She was all smiles, looking to her husband for a moment before turning back to her son's future in-laws.

"August 9th, 1998," she told them. "8 – 9 – 9 – 8," she added, almost singing. "It was a Sunday…"

By the time Melinda Friar finished her story, Maya was looking to Lucas somewhere between awed and baffled. It wasn't like they were shooting for the wedding of the century here, but they did have a solid idea of what they were envisioning for the whole thing and, compared to his parents' ceremony, their plans were starting to sound a bit… simple. Were they doing too little? Did they need a lot? Months ago, when they had been trying to lock down an actual date for their wedding, the whole reason for them to have it set for after their baby was born was so that they could have the wedding they deserved, not just something they'd put together in two seconds, because they were having a baby and they just wanted to be married already. Had they been doing enough all this time? Would four and a half months be enough?

They'd been stuck with this awkward line of thought in their heads, all the way from the diner to the venue, and as they rode in the back of his parents' car, Lucas had reached for Maya's hand. She'd looked at him with that same sort of confused look in her eyes, and he really wished his mother and father could have toned things down with their story.

But then they had reached the venue, and it hadn't been long that they had all forgotten about the magical wedding tale of Tom and Melinda Friar.

"Why don't you two go on ahead and have a first look?" Mr. Friar had told his son and future daughter-in-law as they'd pulled into the lot. Mrs. Friar briefly looked like she'd argue about having to sit back, but then she'd looked at the two of them in the backseat and she'd retreated and echoed her husband.

Lucas got out of the car and moved around to open the door and offer a hand to Maya as she climbed out. She looked over her shoulder as they walked, hearing a car, and they saw that her family had just arrived, too. No one was getting out, so maybe the Friars had sent a message.

"What do you think?" Lucas asked as the two of them advanced on their own. She was looking all around. They were still outside, hadn't even seen the rest yet, except in pictures, but already she felt her heart thumping out like a song.

"Fall Fest…" she breathed.

"What?" he asked, not sure he'd heard her right.

"When I first moved here. The Fall Festival was coming up, remember?" Now that she put it like that…

"I remember we went there," he nodded, smiling. He looked around again, thinking about what the place would look like, come September, as summer gave way to fall… Maybe he'd just been so close to her for so long that he could almost start to see the world the way she saw it sometimes, but yeah, he could sort of see what she was imagining, and it made him feel a surge of a smile. This was going to be the place where he got to marry the girl he had always and would always love, and it was just right.

"Maybe we should stop here… What if the rest isn't…" Maya started to say, but just as soon stopped and shook her head to herself, regaining determination. They may have been momentarily shaken by his mother's wedding story, but they were steady now.

They were greeted by a woman they soon learned was the same one they'd been dealing with over the phone and through e-mail. She gave them a tour, just the two of them, and every new thing they saw with their own eyes made the pictures they had previously seen look like poor imitations. The outdoors had been breathtaking, just what they wanted, and the inside had topped it without so much as raising a finger. It was a good thing that they'd already established how much this place would cost them, that they'd had ample time to freak out over it and gone through the process of figuring out how they would afford it without this turning into yet more parental charity.

The answer had come in the shape of something apart from their parents though, and it was that, in their lives, they had been fortunate enough to accumulate several sort of… fairy godparents, who wanted nothing more than to help and make this day special for the two of them. The venue fairy remained a mystery, but, they suspected, lived in New York and had just recently scored an invitation. It might have been lumped together under the category of parental charity, but it ended up squeaking by on a technicality.

"Alright, I think we don't have a choice anymore," Lucas spoke even as he was still looking around the reception hall. It was bare now, but he had confidence in his future wife's eye on this.

"I'm afraid not," Maya concurred with a sigh, pulling out her phone.

_Maya: You can come in now._

_Tom: We'll be right there._

_Katy: On our way!_

After they'd leave the venue, Maya would join her parents and siblings in their car, while Lucas got a lift from his parents to head into his third interview of the day. Though she'd already heard some raving compliments out of Mrs. Friar as they were all walking around the place, Maya knew her enough to see when she was holding back, for propriety's sake. She couldn't say if she was disappointed or relieved to be missing the 'full blast' once they were in the car and driving away. She could imagine it all though, so many hand gestures, happy tears at the thought of her sweet Lukey getting married in a few months. She also hoped it wouldn't throw Lucas off his game for his next interviews.

As they were nearing home, Maya's phone buzzed, and she pulled it out, expecting for a moment that it would be Lucas, but instead she saw…

_Ainsley: Are you still in town?_

_Maya: Yeah, until tonight. What's up?_

_Ainsley: We didn't get to talk much yesterday, so I was thinking we could meet up somewhere._

_Maya: How about the park?_

Even though she insisted she could walk or grab a bus, Shawn had insisted on turning the car around and driving her to the park, so that she arrived just a few minutes after texting Ainsley. She wasn't sure how long it would take for her to arrive, so she sat on a bench and waited. She still had her notebook with her, so she turned the pages to a blank one before starting on a sketch of what she'd seen in her head when they'd been at the venue, not just the place itself but what it might become once it was all done up for the wedding.

She had a pretty good image drawn up already by the time a child's squeal made her look up and she spotted Ainsley heading her way, with little Cameron fixed to her hip much as he'd been the day before, the only different being that he was wide awake this time around, and they no longer looked like they'd just come out of the pool. As they approached the bench and the boy's gaze fixed on Maya, he looked silently curious.

"Hey, I didn't keep you waiting too long?" Ainsley asked.

"Oh, no, it's fine," Maya insisted, closing her notebook and setting it on the bench, tucked at her side. "I always like being out here like this. Anyway, it feels nice to just get to take a breather for a while."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Ainsley replied knowingly. When she moved to set her son on the bench, the boy started to whimper in mild distress, and no matter how she tried to soothe him, Ainsley couldn't get him to stop, so finally she just sat and kept him in her lap. He curled up in her arms, lying against her even as he turned curious eyes to the other person sitting with them. "He gets shy around strangers, but he warms up after a while," Ainsley explained, brushing her fingers through her son's head of hair, which was the same sort of strawberry blond as his mother's. They had the same eye color, too, an almost faded blue. Cameron Ellis looked as though he'd caught all his inherited traits from his mother, which some might call a blessing.

His presumed father may have been deemed one of the hottest guys in their class back in high school, but he didn't take long to reveal himself for having character in near total opposition to his looks. Maya hadn't meant to bring him up, but later in the conversation he had come up anyway.

"One of my sisters was like that, too," Maya smiled, recalling the baby days of Nellie and Gracie. "But then my other sister, her twin, was the opposite, which definitely ended up mixing some signals whenever people would see them again. They'd go up to Gracie, thinking she was Nellie, who loved just being picked up and spoken to in a very upbeat sort of way, and then she would just freak _out_…" They laughed, and it _was_ funny now, sure, though back when it was actually happening, she was more of the 'don't you make my sister cry' type.

"Oh, no…" Ainsley laughed on.

"She's still like that, a little, but at least now instead of screaming like a banshee she'll just hold her hands up like 'no!'" Maya imitated her with a smile. "Either that, or she'll stand just far enough that Nellie's in front of her anyway, and Nellie _loves_ saying hello to people… It's been a problem a couple of times, so, you know, it might not be a bad thing this guy here doesn't jump in right away."

"Yeah, probably," Ainsley agreed, looking down to Cameron, who continued to stare at Maya like he was trying to decide if he liked her.

"You know, my brother's just about his age, we could get them together sometimes, they might become friends."

"You think so? That'd be great, actually. I mean, if your mother is okay with that," Ainsley nodded, looking at once invested in the thought.

"Give me your phone," Maya held out her hand. Ainsley pulled it from her pocket and handed it over after unlocking it. Maya created a new contact with her mother's name and number before passing the phone back. "I'll let her know I gave this to you."

"Thanks," Ainsley replied as she took the phone and put it in her pocket again. Maya looked at her, and there was something almost sad about her former classmate for a beat, which left her to debate whether or not to ask what she wanted to know, what she suspected more and more. Ainsley had no one to back her up. She was doing it all on her own.

"Hey…" Maya slowly asked after a few seconds. "Are you okay?" A simple question in itself, but the kind of simple that was like a very small bit of an iceberg peeking over the surface of the water, when below the surface a massively imposing chunk of ice resided, unseen. As soon as it was asked, by someone Ainsley considered a friend, someone near enough to a position of understanding, it looked like she'd been rattled, her defenses challenged.

"I am, I just…" she started to say, looking to her son, who had spotted a dog across the park and was now following its progress with great intent. "You're lucky, you know that? You've got so many people around you right now." Even as she said it, Ainsley looked almost ashamed, like she was faulting Maya for something that was good, something she yearned for.

"I wasn't always," Maya told her. "My mother wasn't always," she pointed out, and even as she said it, all she could think about was how much Ainsley's story paralleled her own. "She got pregnant with me right before she finished high school," she revealed, and Ainsley looked at her. "She was on her own, and my father, his parents kicked him out, so the two of them went at it on their own. Then, my dad left when I was six, so it was just me and my mom. Those were not good years," Maya shook her head, though she had to edit this claim just as soon as she made it. "She loved me, and she did her best for me, and it took me a while to really be able to put myself in her position…" Her hand had been moving along the curve of her belly as she spoke, and right here she felt a kick, which made her smile.

"I used to wonder about your mom, when I'd see you and her. She looked so much younger than the others, but I never…"

"What happened with your family?" Maya slowly asked, feeling this would be as good of a time as any to bring it up. Ainsley let out a breath.

"My mother's been living in Spain since I was ten, and my father… He wasn't the most involved parent, so it was mostly Allie and me. _She_ went to college in England, so our senior year it was just me and my dad, but he was just sort of there. I worked so hard, I had a plan, I was going to New York. Then prom happened, and… I slipped. I got together with Brian, and well…" she looked to her son.

"What did your father say?" Maya asked, sympathy rising.

"He didn't exactly kick me out, but he made it very clear that he wasn't going to put in one cent to support another kid, even if it was his grandkid. Then I went to Brian, because what other choice did I have? He gave me money. He didn't say what he wanted me to do with it, but he didn't have to. I had the money my mother had already sent for me to start off in college, which is a good thing, because otherwise she would probably have taken it back. When I told her I was having a baby, she had… words."

"Damn…" Maya breathed.

"I stayed at home as long as I could, to save up money, then I got my apartment and I moved out there, had Cameron a few weeks later, and it's been him and me ever since. Brian went to school in Michigan, I think. Allie says once she finishes school she'll come back and we can get a place the three of us together, but at this point maybe it's best if I keep things the way they are now." They were silent for a moment. Cameron was looking back at Maya again, not clinging so much to his mother as he'd done when they'd arrived. "Sorry for unloading on you like that…" Ainsley breathed.

"No, hey, it's fine. I'm glad you told me. I meant what I said, and I want us to hang out some more. Lucas and I are moving back in a little over a month, and then before long this guy will be coming along," she nodded down to herself. "I could use another mom to talk to," she smiled. At this, Cameron reached out his little hand to her, and Maya took it in hers. "Right?" she told him with a chuckle and the boy giggled. "Hey…" she looked back up to Ainsley now, thinking even as she said it, "Want to come over for dinner tonight? Both of you?"

When Lucas returned from the last of the day's interviews, he entered the Hunter Hart living room to find Maya and her mother sitting on the couch with Ainsley Ellis, while the twins hovered about MJ and another small boy who was the spitting image of the girl on the couch, as the toddlers teetered around the room, laughing and squealing.

Dinner had been good and lively, but soon after it was over Maya and Lucas said goodnight to everyone and started back for Houston. Lucas especially was exhausted, which was to be expected, and he didn't want to be driving later than he had to. The ride back was spent with Maya first recounting Ainsley's tale before drifting into a pensive silence which Lucas did not disrupt. When they arrived at the house, they found Dylan and Riley watching a movie on the couch, the two of them passing on that Sophie and Chiara were off on a date. Maya headed upstairs while Lucas headed into the basement for a shower.

He made his way up to join her minutes later, catching on to the low sound of music coming from their room, and then there was Maya's voice, lightly humming along to the tune. When he reached the door, he finally got a look at the full picture, which featured Maya just sort of swaying slowly from foot to foot as though dancing, hands locked under her belly and head bowed to the music… holding their baby, dancing with him. She looked so casually happy and at peace, and he couldn't remember his having been tired before. All he felt now was love at once complete and forever expanding for this girl off in her own world.

Lucas moved into her line of sight and she looked at him, smiling as she opened out her arms and let him into her dance.

"Practicing for the wedding?" he asked, and she nodded. He took one of her hands, placed his other to the small of her back as she set hers to the back of his shoulder. "I feel like there's something between us," he joked, making her smirk.

"Get used to it," she joked back.

"Already done," he promised.

"How did it go this afternoon? I never got to ask."

"Pretty good," Lucas nodded, and she gave him a look like 'oh _pretty_ good, that's new.' He smiled. "The guy at the clinic knows Aunt Tanya, they went to school together. Hasn't seen her in years, but she's my reference, so…"

"Rekindling friendships, look at you," Maya gave a proud smirk. "And the museum?"

"Well, the good thing about getting interviewed by your old boss for a job you left amicably because you were going to college out of town is that it makes things a lot easier. It was almost just the two of us catching up more than an interview."

"So does that mean…"

"Won't know right away," he explained. "But it's looking good. At the same time, if things pan out with any of the other places, I might choose to go with those first. I loved working at the museum, and I'd be thrilled to be there again, but it's good to move forward sometimes, take new steps instead of going back." She nodded in agreement. "I know how much you missed that blazer though…" Maya gave a coy sort of shrug.

"We can _get_ you a blazer," she told him. "I want you to go wherever you want to go."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	24. Full of Surprises

_Chapter 24_  
_Full of Surprises_

Maya and Lucas had both known it would be rough once they'd be gearing up for finals, even as they approached a move out of the city and into a home they were still working to prepare, all the while getting closer and closer to the birth of their first child and the ceremony that would make them husband and wife… They'd known, and yet now that it was all starting to fall into place, it started to feel like maybe they'd had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Her professors already informed that she would be absent on that day, Maya awoke on Wednesday morning with the thought that she could get some studying done while she waited for her mother to arrive… Or she could see if there was anything she could get packed off for the move… Maybe she could check in on her wedding dress, even if she had no hope whatsoever of getting it to fit her for the time being…

"Do you have to go to the bathroom?" Lucas asked. She turned her head to look at him.

"What?" After a moment, she blinked and shook her head. "It's not that… Okay, maybe it's also that, be right back," she got to her feet and walked as fast as she could manage and left the room. A few minutes went by and then she was back, just sort of standing in the middle of the room with a searching look. "I need something to do until my mother comes to pick me up for my appointment with Dr. Wilkes," she finally explained.

"It's not until this afternoon, you've got time," he reminded her, a small look of disappointment on his face. Maya looked back at him and, remembering he wanted to but couldn't accompany her, she let out a breath. The whole reason her mother was coming up from Austin was because Lucas couldn't be there today. Not only did it land in a class where his professor would not tolerate his being absent, not for this, but he had a test, too, so he really couldn't tempt fate.

"I know," she sighed, moving over to the bed and sitting in the space next to him. He half crawled his way forward, until his head more or less rested over her belly, while his arms were around her for additional support. She smiled, supporting herself with one hand while the other went burying its fingers in his hair. For a little while they just stayed like this in silence, with him listening for their sprout while she found a moment's peace in having him close to her this way.

After he'd gone, along with their roommates, Maya had spent no more than a minute in the near complete silence of the house before she'd gone to put on music. She had an hour or so to kill before her mother was expected to arrive, and she'd spent it by looking through her notes, and her books, before assembling a solid review plan she could then break into a schedule. These days, schedules and proper time management were becoming so essential, not just toward getting things done but also just putting things into enough of a perspective that she didn't feel so overwhelmed.

Finally, there'd been the doorbell, and she was preceded down the stairs by the dogs, who ran off barking at once. They were stood at the door, still giving off their call like 'attention, person, we know you're there.' When Maya finally reached them, they circled her feet as though they'd be the one to reveal to her that someone was on the other side of the door.

"Look, see, I'm here, calm down," she told them as she got the door open. Her mother walked in and now the dogs were all over her, recognizing her for being one of their people. "To be fair, I get pretty excited when you come over, too," Maya smiled as Katy moved to embrace her.

"Good," her mother laughed.

They went off to lunch at the Nook before they'd set off toward the hospital clinic where Maya would see Dr. Wilkes. As they sat and chatted about this thing and that, Maya couldn't help but think about Ainsley. Ever since she'd run into her, the two of them rekindling a friendship once based in their going to the same school and now shifting into their shared experience of motherhood, she hadn't stopped thinking about her. They'd had the brief chat at the pool on Saturday, then they'd met up at the park on Sunday, talked some more, and Maya had invited Ainsley and her son over for dinner. Since then, they had been texting back and forth, every day.

Maya would think about how the other girl's situation was so different from her own but at the same time almost familiar for how it resembled her own parents' situation at the time of her birth. She thought about how easily it could all have gone the same way for her without a lot of ifs. _If_ she didn't have parents who were as understanding as they were loving, not to mention generous. _If _she'd been just a couple years younger. _If _Pappy Joe hadn't left them his house. _If _she didn't have the friends and the support system that she had around her. _If_ she didn't have a partner like Lucas… She had never been so aware of how fortunate she was, and now that it was so clear to her she wanted to acknowledge it as best she could, didn't want to take it for granted.

"You're sure your doctor will take me on?" Maya asked her mother as they pulled into the hospital's parking lot. She was still nervous about seeing Dr. Wilkes today, telling her about the fact that they'd forgotten to mention the very important part about her and Lucas being back in Austin by the time she had the baby. She felt so irresponsible whenever she thought about it, and she knew it was just one slip up compared to months of doing so much good, but still… Now all she wanted was to get this taken care of and move on.

"I already called her office. The receptionist knows me very well and she is expecting your call to fix your first appointment. Once you've seen Wilkes here, you'll need to see about getting your file over to the clinic in Austin."

"Okay, yeah, I can do that," Maya took a breath.

X

Deep down, Lucas understood his professor's stipulations, wanting him to uphold his presence in class regardless of how much he wanted to be at that appointment. It wasn't as though _he_ was the one growing a human inside his body, he didn't _need_ to be there specifically, he just wanted to, because… well, why wouldn't he want to? His education was important, maybe now more than ever, and unless the baby somehow went and came very, very early, he would not be exempted from attending class, whether or not he had a test. He understood it. He respected it. He still hated every minute of it.

So when he handed in his booklet and walked out of the room, pulling his silenced phone from his bag to find four missed calls and several texts from Maya, he almost tripped over his feet as he hurried down the hall while directly calling her cell.

"I'm fine, baby's fine," was her greeting, no hellos preceding, as she could well guess what he'd be needing to hear. It pushed some amount of calm back into him, yes, but if she'd been so pressed to reach him while she knew he wouldn't be able to look at his phone…

"But?" he asked.

"Can you come and meet us right now?" she asked, unnecessarily hesitant but at the same time… scared?

"Yeah, where are you?" He was already jogging through the halls toward the parking exit.

"Still at the hospital… Down in the ER." Her voice was so strange and small right there, and as though she'd read his mind, she reiterated… "Me and the sprout, we're really okay, I swear, it's… it's my mom."

Save for the fact that, this time around, he was already in Houston when he'd gotten the call, the whole thing felt all too familiar, and when he'd reached the ER and found Maya, the look on her face showed how much she'd felt it, too.

"I really need my parents to stop ending up in here…" she'd breathed upon feeling his arms close around her. She hadn't specified the cause of this trip over from the clinic, on the other side of the hospital. When he'd asked what was going on, all she'd said was that she'd tell him once he arrived, which was as good as her saying 'please just get here as soon as possible.' Now that he _was_ here, he needed her to tell him what was going on with Katy.

They had gone and seen Dr. Wilkes, as was the plan, and they'd told her about the move, the transfer to Dr. Tanaka… As worried as she'd been about telling her, Maya stated how, compared to what had happened next, it had been a breeze.

While they'd moved on to the actual exam, Maya's mother had excused herself to go to the bathroom. Everything had been going fine, the baby was doing great, growing right as he should… Dr. Wilkes was running through her usual questions when a nurse had burst into the room, calling for the doctor's assistance, a situation in the bathroom. As to the two women had rushed off, Maya had gone as quick as she could to get up and follow them. She knew, she just knew. _The bathroom…_ Something was wrong with her mother.

By the time she'd gotten herself over there, Dr. Wilkes was on the phone with someone, asking for a gurney. Some of the other patients, regulars Maya was getting to know pretty well, were standing near the bathroom door, and all she could see was the nurse who'd bust in earlier, crouching and holding someone's hand, and she already knew it would be her mother's hand. Finally, she'd come to stand in the doorway and she'd seen her there, sitting on the floor…

"Did she fall?" Lucas asked. Maya looked just shy of traumatized.

"Not exactly, she just sort of… sat there," she gestured. Looking at him, seeing the still confused look on his face, she went on. "She's pregnant." Lucas' eyes went just a bit wide. "But it's… she's not…" Her chin was quivering, she couldn't say it. Lucas squeezed her hand.

"Did she lose it?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know. They rushed her over here, but I haven't heard…"

If he needed a reason why she'd so desperately tried to reach him before, why she'd wanted him there with her in this moment, he could see it well enough here. On the surface, it was easy to see why her finding herself in the ER with one of her parents for the second time in under five months would be traumatizing, especially right now with the surge of just everything happening in her body with this pregnancy, and now this time especially with it having to do with someone else's being pregnant, and the thought of a miscarriage. But then underneath all that, it was her mother, the woman who'd been her entire world for so long, having something potentially so heartbreaking happening to her… It was so much, and she was getting no answers.

Finally, someone appeared, and it was Dr. Wilkes. Maya stood from her chair, and Lucas did as well, never letting go of her hand. He could practically feel her heart beating out of her chest.

"Is she okay?" she asked the doctor in a trembling voice. "Did she…"

"Your mother is resting now, and she will need to continue this way for some time. She was lucky. If she hadn't been right here, with you, we might have been too late to do anything." It took Maya and Lucas both a few seconds to understand what Dr. Wilkes was telling them. It didn't feel like they could dare to hope.

"W-Wait, so she… she didn't… the baby…" Maya finally assembled the words. The doctor nodded.

"We will continue to monitor her, to ensure it stays that way, but yes," she gave her patient a smile, pulling a piece of paper from her coat pocket and handing it over. "I thought you might like to see for yourself."

It reminded them both so much of that first ultrasound, how small their sprout had been at the time… and now here was this little thing, narrowly rescued. Maya had burst into tears, out of sheer relief, and Lucas had hugged her again, letting her ride out the emotion.

When they'd finally been able to go and see her, they found Katy laid out on the gurney they'd had brought for her down in the clinic, in a semi-seated position, with such a dazed look on her face. She was still processing everything she had experienced and learned on this day. As she saw Maya coming toward her though, she held out her arm at once, receiving her eldest daughter into a hug that was as reassuring for one as it was for the other.

"How are you feeling?" Maya asked, still not entirely recovered from the rollercoaster of emotions even if it was taking a definite upswing since they'd spoken to Dr. Wilkes.

"I don't even know," Katy told her. "One second I was just here for you, like back-up, and now here I am, and there's…" she looked down at herself, and there was the shock all over again. "I mean, I'd started to suspect I might be, I've done this three times already, it's less of a surprise when the symptoms start kicking in, easier to say 'oh, well, here we go again.' But I didn't know for sure, and I was going to look into it this week. And now…"

And now, even though she, like Maya, had been assured that she had not lost the child growing inside her… She _had_ very nearly lost it, and could still lose it, and there might not be another fortunate save. It was all too normal then that she would need time to pull herself together again.

"Look…" Maya held out the photo Dr. Wilkes had given her. She put it in her mother's hand, like tangible proof, and Katy smiled, sniffling back a few tears.

"I saw it, on the screen…" Her finger kept touching the photo, the small thing that was to be her fifth child, the fourth with… "Shawn," she said his name as she thought it. Maya sat up.

"Did you call him?" Lucas asked her.

"There was no time, it all happened so fast, and then I just…" Maya shook her head. And like last time, when Kermit had passed out on their front step and Lucas had been in Austin at the time, she'd been afraid of dropping a bombshell that might send someone out on the road with a bit too much urgency to feel in any way safe. Only this time it was Shawn who needed to come over, and this time… it was so much more of a personal thing.

"I'll take care of it," Lucas touched his fiancée's shoulder. "You stay with your mother," he tipped his head to Katy, who mouthed a silent thank you.

He'd gone all the way out of the ER before pulling out his phone, and even then it had taken him a few moments to figure out what he was supposed to do, who he should be calling. Finally, he did what he always did when he was overwhelmed and in need of a specific kind of assistance. He called home.

"Hello," his father answered the phone as though he'd just grabbed it when he'd heard it ring, in the middle of doing something else.

"Dad, it's me," Lucas replied. His father's voice changed at once, grew focused.

"What's wrong?"

He laid out the story as briefly but accurately as he could, about Maya's appointment, Katy being with her, and everything that happened after that, right down to the very important fact that Katy had not lost her baby, and she was currently being looked after, further ensuring that she would continue on this track. Tom Friar would need to know this when he went and got Shawn Hunter.

"I'm leaving right now. I'll let you know when we're on the road."

After they'd hung up, Lucas had quickly sent off a message on the house thread and then returned into the hospital to find Maya and her mother. At this point, his whole mission became to look after the two of them… four of them… and get hold of what either of them might need.

Maya was still trying to make sense of everything that had happened today, but now she was also getting to think about what this revelation would mean for the future. She and Lucas were still going to be here in Houston for about a month, and as if they didn't have enough to think about, they could now add 'Will Katy be okay? Will the baby be okay?' to the list, and that distance between them would go and feel as enormous as ever. One more reason why they were moving back to Austin, right?

Her mother was pregnant again, _that_… that was the part she was still processing, and how could it _not_ feel strange to think about it? Sure, her son would have two aunts who were just under four years older than him, and an uncle who was not even two years older than him, and that was odd, sure, but already a given from the moment those sticks had revealed that Maya and Lucas were expecting a child, all the way back on Halloween night.

And now… Now her son might well have an aunt or uncle who would be somewhere about five months younger than him, if her math was correct. She'd considered the possibility, all those months ago, but even then, it had been more of a silly thought than anything she believed would actually happen. It would be more of a weird idea than anything else, she realized that. The part that really struck her as the most bizarre was the fact that, right now, and for several weeks after this moment… and before it, too, unbeknownst to any of them… she and her mother would be pregnant at the same time.

The first people to show up, by virtue of proximity, ended up being their roommates. Riley, Dylan, Sophie, and Chiara all came hurrying along, all of them looking as dumbstruck as Lucas had done when she'd first told him about what had happened. Their friends did also know the part they'd heard from the doctor though, so their surprise looked tinted with some level of 'are we happy, should we congratulate, or are we only sort of hopeful while also preparing for the worst?' Katy thanked them for coming, and after speaking with her for a few minutes they'd gone to sit in the waiting room, so not to crowd her or Maya and Lucas.

Finally, a couple of hours later, Shawn Hunter came barrelling through the ER in search of his wife and daughter, with said daughter's future father-in-law in tow. He hadn't so much stopped as he'd slowed and moved right to Katy's bedside to embrace her, and ask her all the questions which must have been rotating through his head as he stared at the road representing the distance between them, probably thinking how it took much too long to disappear. Katy answered each one with the patience that came with seeing the one you loved absolutely losing their mind out of worry, out of that very same love, and having the power to bring them reassurance. She'd ended by passing the printed image into his hand, much as Maya had passed it into hers earlier.

Maya would tease her father whenever she saw him cry, but this time around, she said nothing. She had shed some of those relieved tears herself not long ago.

When he'd gone on to be told about the exact timeline of events, everything that led to his now being in possession of proof of this not-so-lost child, he finally broke from his daze enough to now find Maya, standing by. He moved to hug her, and for a few moments neither of them said anything or did anything except to hold one another. There were many things that united them in life, many parts of their lives that seemed almost mirrored. Loving Katy Hart with all their hearts was one of them.

"Where are the others?" Maya asked her father as they pulled apart.

"They're spending the night with Melinda," Tom Friar piped in from where he stood, effectively telling his son that he would stick around for the time being, more or less putting himself in the same position as Lucas had done earlier: at the disposal of whatever needs the Hunter Harts might have had, including any rides between Houston and Austin. Lucas and Maya may not have been getting married until September, but the Hunter Harts and the Friars had been family for a long time already.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	25. Down This Road

_Chapter 25_  
_Down This Road_

It had taken all of a week, it felt, for their Austin life – still four weeks from even beginning – to start and take shape. In the nine days since the appointment with Dr. Wilkes, so many pieces had come into play.

Katy and Shawn had remained in Houston for a night, along with Tom Friar. After having worried for a time about the handing off of Maya's prenatal care from Dr. Wilkes in Houston off to Dr. Tanaka in Austin, the two women had found themselves conversing over Katy's case, which had then led to a quick rundown of Maya's progress along the way. It was then decided to get Katy back home, after which Dr. Tanaka could see to her and the baby which continued to cling to her, to everyone's relief.

Much as Maya would have liked for her to stay in Houston so that she could continue to look after her and this sibling to be, she knew it would be for the best, for her parents and for her young siblings having what they believed to be a casual sleepover at the Friar house. At least they talked every day, where they could both ask after the state of those babies growing in the other's belly.

They hadn't been apart from one another for that long, of course. The appointment had been on Wednesday, and Katy and Shawn had been in Houston into Thursday, and then on Friday afternoon Maya and Lucas were hitting the road to spend the weekend in Austin. This left only four days, nearly five, since their last time seeing one another.

That previous Friday, two days after the appointment, Maya and Lucas had attended the first of their four prenatal class sessions. Maya had still been a bit on this side of distracted, thinking about her mother, but at the same time she wanted to focus on this, on making sure she was ready for the moment when she and Lucas welcomed their baby boy into the world.

"They're going to show a birth video at some point, aren't they?" Maya had pondered as they pulled up to the building on that previous Friday, the night of their first class.

"Yeah, I think so," Lucas nodded.

"I'm getting this very vivid memory of when my mother was about to have the twins. One day, I sort of asked her what it was like."

"What'd she say?" he asked with a curious smile.

"She said 'Well I could show you, but I do want grandkids someday,'" Maya intoned in her best Katy impression. Lucas bit back a laugh. "So now I'm basically psyching myself up, reminding myself that it's a necessary part of life and humanity, all so that we might have a shot at having a bigger family someday beyond you, me, and the sprout."

"You've got this," Lucas promised her, in complete honesty. Maya Hart was the strongest person he knew, ups and downs alike. He looked so confident when he said it, and Maya just had to laugh, beaming for how she felt the love radiating off of him.

"Save the pep talks for after I witness a human coming out of another human," she sighed as they went through the door.

There had been no need to reassure her, not that first night at least. All in all, their first session had been fairly relaxed, and they had made it to the Hunter Hart house for dinner with what was a calmly optimistic demeanor. The only thing that actually had them in any way concerned was to wonder how Maya's mother might be doing since they'd seen her the previous day.

On that day, she'd mostly been drowsy from being laid out in bed, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. Everyone was doing their best not to go around and act in any way that might alarm Nellie, Gracie, or MJ and lead them to believe anything was wrong with their mom. Katy and Shawn had told the children that Mommy was just very tired and needed some rest, which led to a number of encounters with small visitors being very sweet and attentive. Sometimes they would bring food, or a toy, to make her feel better. Other times they would climb up on the bed and nap with her. All in all, they had come in with a mission and they had succeeded beyond their own wild expectations.

"I just know that no matter what I do, it's going to stress me out for the next few weeks until we're back here for good, and with everything else going on already, with school, and the move, I don't want it to and affect things with this guy," Maya told Lucas that night, when he'd woken up to go to the bathroom and discovered she was still awake.

"I get that," he nodded, casually running his hand over her belly. "I don't know what to do, short of figuring out if we can do the rest of the semester from here and just be back already"

"Oh, that is tempting, believe me," she breathed. "But it wouldn't work out… Believe me, I checked. We're just going to have to stick it out somehow."

"Well, you'll have your water aerobics starting tomorrow," he reminded her encouragingly. "And you're still doing yoga with Rosa and Willow. And if all that doesn't get you relaxed enough, then I will take up whatever you need to get you the rest of the way. Does that work?"

With this outlook in mind, Maya had gone off to the pool the following morning, while Lucas headed out to work on the house. They had a countdown clock on moving day now, and he was determined to get as much done as possible before his very pregnant fiancée started actually living in that place, where tools and materials continued to dominate several areas.

Maya hadn't been too sure about what to expect of this class she'd be walking into. All she knew for sure was that it would be good for her and for the baby if she went and applied herself. That was easier said than done when her head was still just swirling with thoughts of school, and the move, and her mother…

"First time?" a girl asked, and Maya blinked and turned to find where it came from. "I haven't seen you out there before," the girl went on, standing a few lockers to Maya's right in the changing room. Her voice said southern, but not Texas, more like… Louisiana maybe? She didn't look more than a couple years older, though her pale freckled skin and burning ginger hair, which rivaled even Sophie's, gave her a permanently youthful appearance. Going by the size of her belly, Maya would say they were no more than weeks apart as far as due dates.

"Uh, yeah," she finally blinked and thought to reply. "My boyfriend and I live in Houston right now, but we're moving back in a few weeks, so it made sense to take classes here so I could continue after."

"Good call," the redhead smiled, showing a row of slightly crooked but still sort of charming teeth. That would continue to be the overall impression Maya would have of her: she was mystifyingly charming, always. "I'm Billie," she introduced herself. "Billie Lawson."

"Maya… Hart," Maya replied.

"Nice to meet you," Billie came forward after shutting her locker and they shook hands. "So, how far along are you?"

"Thirty weeks, give or take," Maya looked down at herself. "You?"

"Twenty-six," Billie revealed. "I've been taking the class practically from the day the stick turned pink. I was a lifeguard at our pool back in Baton Rouge for years, and a swimmer long before that, so I started working here after we moved, assisted Etta with the class. Have you met Etta?"

"The instructor, yeah, she got me signed up last week," Maya smiled. Met with Billie's rapid-fire speaking, she wasn't overwhelmed so much as invested.

"She is truly wonderful, you'll love her, you'll see."

Maya had already found herself getting along with the woman when they'd met the week before, and within minutes of the class starting she'd found herself liking her even more. She looked somewhere about her mother's age, her dark hair forced in what looked to be a very thick braid, suggesting curls. The way she moved around, Maya could just tell she was quick to pinpoint the first-time moms in her group, giving them particular attention, especially whenever they'd look like the nearing prospect of childbirth was starting to weigh on them. She'd share stories of her own experiences, from which Maya learned that she was a mother of two herself, a son called Liam and a daughter named Molly.

On her way out of class, back to get changed out of her swimsuit, Maya and Billie had run into Ainsley, who was just arriving along with Cameron for the boy's swim class. They'd all chatted a while, which had led to the three of them committing to hang out the next day after they were done at the pool.

That next class had gone on a bit longer than usual thanks to Etta taking the time to show Maya some of the things she'd promised to show her, for the rest of the week, while she was in Houston and if she got the chance to practice any of it. This made it so that, by the time she got out of the pool and went to get changed, Maya was soon joined by Ainsley and her son, who were done with their class, too. Billie had gone and waited for them in the stands when she'd been ready, and after that they'd all gone off to a nearby café to sit and talk.

Here, Maya had found out that Billie was indeed not too much older than her, twenty-four to be exact. And she had been born and raised in Baton Rouge, up until two years ago, where she'd followed her then boyfriend and now new husband back to his native Austin. His name was Jonah, and the two of them had known each other for years through various swimming competitions, some their own, others their siblings'. When they'd finally moved from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend, they had done long distance for all of three months before finally deciding that it wasn't going to work, that they needed to be in the same place. A month after that, Billie had relocated here to Austin.

In the five days since then, Maya had been able to go to the pool once, on Wednesday, which she figured was an ideal appointment for herself to carry on the habit in the weeks until they moved. She'd go early in the morning, after which she'd be off to the university for class.

She was waiting for the bus that would take her from the pool to the university when she got a call from the receptionist at Dr. Tanaka's office, asking if she'd be available to come in for her appointment the next afternoon instead of the following week's Tuesday as she'd been expecting to go. After telling the receptionist that she'd call her back, Maya had quickly called to Lucas, to decide what they should do.

"Why does she want to see you early?" he asked, like this could only mean that there was something wrong.

"I don't know, maybe since she hasn't seen me yet, she wants to see me as soon as possible. All I know is there was an opening and they want to know if I'll take it. You're at your aunt's clinic tomorrow afternoon, aren't you?"

"I'll see if I can get out of it," he'd told her. After he'd hung up, she'd waited as this phone chain carried on and finally looped back around to her. Lucas called her back a few minutes later, confirming that he was now free to accompany her the next day, and then Maya called the receptionist back and took the appointment.

They wouldn't even get to stop over and see their families on Thursday, as after the appointment they'd need to immediately get back on the road for Houston, where studying and an early bedtime awaited them. Lucas had spent the start of the afternoon at the library, studying now that he wasn't expected at the clinic, and when Maya was through with class, he'd picked her up and they'd made their way back to Austin. They were starting to get the feeling that they'd be driving back and forth many times in their final weeks before the move.

When they arrived at Dr. Tanaka's office, they settled into the waiting room. Lucas was back to rereading from one of his textbooks, while Maya had some of her notes waiting underneath the clipboard with the forms she'd been asked to fill in. As she did this, her eyes were drawn to look around the room, at the other women waiting for their turns. She'd built up so many casual acquaintances, some of them building toward friendship, over at Dr. Wilkes' office, in the months of her pregnancy. She'd seen some who were ahead of her in the beginning, eventually coming along with newborn babes, and then there'd be others so close to her own progress that they would almost be 'comparing notes.' Over time, she'd also come across future moms who were still in early days in their own pregnancies, and she'd have to stop and take it in, seeing how far she'd come.

Now all that was gone. She was the newbie all over again, except in this case she was the newbie who was only a couple months shy of reaching the end, which was almost weird. People here knew each other, a lot of them anyway, and she felt like the new kid in school all over again. It wasn't as awkward as that time, but still…

Her gaze had sort of zeroed in on a girl sitting across the room from Lucas and her. She was just showing enough for it to be noticeable under the right circumstances. That was only part of the picture. Another was that she was on her own, and bordering on flighty. And then the other thing, which only stood out due to its association with the rest of the picture, was that she looked all of sixteen, seventeen years old tops. Maya's immediate impression, in seeing the way she sat there, was that she'd come here on her own and didn't want people staring at her… but she also dreaded being by herself out here. She also had a clipboard in her hands, so it had to be her first time seeing the doctor, too.

"Here, take this," Maya whispered, slipping her pen to Lucas. He looked up from his textbook, confused. "I'll be right back."

"What are you doing?" Lucas asked, no doubt sensing that she was up to something.

"I can't help it, okay, my mommy senses are tingling," she 'defended' herself before rising from her chair and casually walking across the room toward the lonesome girl. "Hey…" she spoke quietly. The girl's eyes turned up hesitantly. "My pen kind of died halfway through this, can I borrow yours when you're done?" Maya asked, indicating the identical clipboard in the girl's hand.

"Here," the girl held out her pen after a couple seconds of awkward silence. "I can finish after," she shrugged.

"Alright, thanks," Maya told her, sitting in the next chair over before getting back to her forms. As she filled in the last of it, she could see the girl absently tugging at the frayed ends of a friendship bracelet around her wrist, like a nervous tick. Every few seconds, she'd sort of turn her head like she was sneaking a look at Maya's belly. It wasn't like she lacked in options in this room, but she'd been keeping herself from looking at the others. Maybe she figured she was allowed this time, since they'd shared a pen. Maya caught on to this and chose to use it. "It's my first time here, too," she confided.

"Oh?" the girl blinked, sitting up. "But you're…"

"I live in Houston right now, but we're moving back here in a few weeks," she explained. "Had to get a new doctor. It's not so bad though. My mother is a patient of hers, she delivered my sisters and my brother already." _And another, months from now, if all goes well._ "How long have you known?" Maya asked, handing the pen back. The girl slowly took it.

"Like a week," she admitted, which made Maya blink. "I mean… I thought I might be for a while, I just couldn't… I… I was hoping I'd be wrong and I wouldn't have to, but…" she looked down at herself, at the growing evidence before her. She could probably hide it for a little while longer, but after that… She turned to look at Maya now, and the way she stopped and stared at her, it was like she was just now realizing how much she'd said, and she was left to wonder why she'd said it, to a complete stranger.

"My name's Maya," she introduced herself, before the ice they'd broken could seal itself back up again. A moment's hesitation again, but finally…

"Brianna," the girl spoke, somewhere between clearly and mumbled.

After this, though it required some careful crafting in keeping her talking, Maya had started to get a better idea of who this girl was, like taking the picture she already had, in two dimensions, up to a fuller, three-dimensional environment. Brianna was sixteen at the moment, though from the glimpse she'd gotten of her form when Lucas had been so kind as to collect everything and bring it to the desk, she could calculate that she'd have her birthday before her baby was born… if…

She had not told her parents yet. As to the baby's father, Brianna clammed up, so Maya didn't push. For the time being, her plan was to see the doctor, nothing more. Once that happened, then she would decide what her next move would be.

Maya had been called in for her appointment soon after this, and by the time she and Lucas came out of the exam room, Brianna was gone. Maybe she was in the bathroom, or in another of the rooms, or she was just gone. Either way, they couldn't stick around to find out. They had to get in the car, had to start back for home.

"The doctor was nice," Lucas nodded as they were leaving the lot. "I sort of remember seeing her at the hospital when Nellie and Gracie were born." He turned to look at Maya after a few seconds of silence. She was looking out the window, in that distracted way she'd get when her thoughts had just flown away and she'd been pulled along with them. He usually could tell what the thing was that had carried her mind away, and right now he guessed it was that girl she'd been talking to before they'd been called in to the office. The best thing he could do now was to wait until she came back a little and started to talk. It took several minutes, by which point they had pulled on to that long road stretching on and on toward Houston, but she'd turned her head to look forward again.

"Do you ever think about how lucky we've been? Lately, it's like I can't stop."

"Sometimes, kind of," Lucas told her.

"I mean, for all we know, things will turn out okay for Brianna, too. But they might not. And then I think about Ainsley… and my parents when they had me…" He knew what she meant, and still he didn't know what to tell her in return. It hadn't been on his mind in the same way it had been for her, but he could understand why it _would_ be something she'd get caught up on. "Is it selfish that I'm glad I don't have to find out what that's like?"

"If it is, it's not a bad thing. No one would want to have to experience that, not like that." Maya nodded, looking back out the window.

"I hope I see her again next time…"

The next day, it was back on the road again, as they finished their classes for the day and headed back on their way to Austin for Friday dinner, preceded by their second session of prenatal class. As they reached the building, Maya and Lucas shared a look which threatened to spill into laughter, thinking of the possibility that this might be the night where their instructor busted out the birthing video.

"I can't help it, I keep hearing the Jaws theme in my head right now," Maya told him.

"Wait," Lucas chuckled. "So, in this scenario, that makes the baby the shark, and then…"

"Yeah, don't even try and picture it."

"I won't have to, if they show the video…"

They walked into the room, finding the various parents-to-be sort of milling around the place, some of them chatting, the women pointing to one another…

"Hi, guys," one of them waved to Maya and Lucas as they approached. Her name was Samantha, they'd met the week before, had some laughs over some of the material on hand for the lessons with her and who they'd assumed to be her husband, only today she was accompanied by another guy than the one they'd met last time, Aaron. He'd been Asian, while this other guy had something about him that distinctly said 'European,' not simply from descent but from birth.

"Hey, Samantha," Maya smiled back at her, eyes darting to the stranger. "Aaron couldn't make it today?" she inquired.

"He and I agreed to split these classes," the unknown man revealed, with an accent so deeply French they could practically hear music as he spoke. "He does two, and I do two as well."

"I told them they could both come," Samantha shrugged. "It's _their_ baby."

"Oh…" Lucas blinked, understanding. "Sorry, we didn't realize…" he gestured between the two of them in explanation when he thought his reaction might have come off differently.

"Don't worry about it," Samantha told him and Maya both. "It's just some people get weird about the surrogacy thing sometimes, so we've been playing it kind of casual, you know? This is Marius, by the way," she introduced the French man. "Aaron's husband and co-Dad to this… baby, whose gender will remain a mystery until their birth," she went on, in a way that suggested that Aaron and Marius wanted this to be a surprise but also that Samantha had at some point learned the answer and had very nearly said something that would have spoiled it.

Samantha went on to explain that she had become friends with Aaron a few years back when she'd gone looking to get in touch with her Vietnamese roots, having been adopted at birth. And when Aaron and Marius had started talking about having a child, one thing had led to another and she had offered herself as their surrogate. And now here they were.

Their conversation was cut short by the start of class, which again did not feature any birth video, though right before the day's session had ended, they had been promised they would be getting to that in the following session. Lucas had very lightly hummed the Jaws theme under his breath, and Maya had burst into giggles. They said their goodbyes until next week to Samantha, and until two weeks from now to Marius, with well wishes to Aaron who would be back for the next class.

"Don't know who you'd call the winner for being the one present or absent for that next one," Maya declared as they got in the car, getting a smirk from Lucas. After a beat of silence, remembering where they were headed next, remembering what had happened now a week and a half ago in Dr. Wilkes' office, they felt just a bit sobered. They'd had a good time in class here, and now suddenly the worries were seeping back in.

They didn't really know how long it would take, didn't know when the time would come where they could finally tell themselves that Katy would be fine, that the baby would be okay. All they knew was that they had to wait out the next four weeks of back and forth between Houston and Austin. After that… Well, a few weeks after that they would be welcoming their little sprout, and then who knew exactly what their lives would be like. But they would be in Austin, they would be near Maya's family, and whatever they needed to ensure that their boy had his young aunt or uncle to grow up with, whatever they could do, it would be as good as done.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	26. We Can Only Go Forward

_Chapter 26_  
_We Can Only Go Forward_

Lucas returned from working at his aunt's clinic the following Thursday, knowing he'd be spending the evening upstairs. He had to finish out a paper due in the next day, before taking off for another Austin weekend with Maya. The semester was nearly done, everything was just ramping up… The funny thing was that the work didn't stress him out that much. He would sit and focus on whatever he had to be reading or writing, and he would push all the stress and the anticipation into the back of his mind for a little while.

Three weeks until the move, and not long after that… he'd have a son, he'd be a _father_… The closer they got to that threshold, when the baby would be with them, to be held, to be cared for, the more he realized how much he was starting to feel anxious and just a bit scared. Here would be this little boy, this new life that he and Maya had created together… What if he messed up? He'd been preparing all this time, reading books, and articles, and watching videos, practicing how to change diapers and any number of childcare activities, and that was all good and fine because there was no actual baby yet.

The wild thing here was that he and Maya kept on mirroring each other. He was so confident that she would be a phenomenal mother, while he remained nervous over his capabilities as a father, and at the same time… Maya kept telling him how great he would be, but he knew… He knew how much she doubted herself, too. Neither of them had really addressed the issue beyond continually reiterating their trust in the other's skill as a future parent. They _were_ going to have to talk it over sooner or later, preferably before their sprout was good and born, but right now… Right now, they had assignments, and finals, and a move… They just had to keep going.

He walked into the bedroom to find Maya had the dogs with her and also a guest. Rosa was sitting cross-legged on the bed, with Lou in her lap, while Trix followed at Maya's heels as she looked to a selection of items spread on the bed, next to a bag he knew was meant to be her hospital bag when the day would come for their baby to be born. She looked like she was in the process of stocking it up, filling it at the ready. Rosa was the first to notice his arrival.

"Hey, Lucas," she raised her hand in greeting. Maya turned around now, smiling when she saw him. He moved to join her, hugging her and pressing a kiss to her lips when she turned her face up to look at him again.

"How was the clinic?" she asked.

"Pretty relaxed, all things considered," he informed her with a nod.

"Probably a good thing," Rosa piped in. They looked at her. "That just means there's no animals in distress, you know?" she shrugged. If she wasn't sitting right there, they would have joked how she was already making herself at home here – which was more than fine by them – so they could only imagine what she'd be like when she moved in. They hadn't made her the offer yet, but it kind of made sense, didn't it? She'd be going to college in the fall, and there would be a room to spare once the two of them moved out… It just felt right.

"You're doing the hospital bag," Lucas remarked, looking to the stuff on the bed.

"Yeah, well, with where I'm at right now, it just made sense for us to be ready, in case this guy in here starts to get ideas about when he wants to make his debut," Maya explained, nodding down to her belly, which at thirty-two weeks was only getting to feel impossible in the best way.

"Yeah, I can see that," Lucas nodded along.

"Oh, you have that paper to write," Maya gasped now, remembering them talking about it earlier. "I can finish this later…"

"No, hey, it's fine," he stopped her before she could go and try to clear out of the room. "I'll go work down in the basement. Really, it's fine, it'll be quiet. Keep it up," he indicated the spread on the bed, leaning to kiss her forehead before heading back out into the hall. Maya watched him go, hating that she'd displaced him, though at the same time…

"Why didn't you tell him?" Rosa asked quietly. Maya turned to her. "I mean you're fine now, it's not like…"

"Like he'll worry? Of course, he will. Trust me, it doesn't take much to get him going these days, and he already has a lot going on. Thank you for not saying anything before, can you keep it that way?" Maya asked her friend and bandmate… former bandmate… Rosa sighed, but she nodded.

It had started earlier that day, at the university. She'd been studying in Professor Robinson's office, her preferred alternative to the library as she'd advanced further and further into her pregnancy. She didn't have to deal with there being so many people there that she'd sometimes have to walk a good five minutes before a table became available, dealing with fellow students who cared more about their workload than about allowing her a spot to sit and get off her feet. She had a nice, comfy couch and a much better desk chair to sit on than what they had at the library, and she could eat without someone coming along and giving her The Look. Where else would she want to be?

So, there she'd been, on the couch, earbuds in her ears, feet up, book in her lap, while the professor sat at her desk, answering e-mails from students. Maya had been trying to ignore some discomfort for a while, to focus on her reading, and then suddenly there'd been this feeling in her, and it was just new and unfamiliar, and it caught her off guard enough that she tugged a bud from her ear as she sat up, book slipping from her hand to land with a thump on the ground, startling Professor Robinson.

"What…" she started to ask, but then she was looking over and seeing her student's face fill with rising distress. She stood from her desk at once and went over to her. "Maya, what's happening, what is it?"

In her head, in that moment, Maya could not even find any kind of rational thinking. Her thoughts had gone right for the panic lane, the one insisted that clearly something must be going on, something that wasn't supposed to happen, not for weeks, no…

"No, no, no, no, no..." she breathed, like all the alarms were going off. She was so trapped in that moment that it took several seconds before she felt her professor's hand holding hers, before she could see that the woman was right there with her, talking to her.

"Maya, look at me," she insisted, so Maya looked at her. "Breathe, you're alright. Tell me what you're feeling right now. Don't spare me details." She could barely think at first, but finally she answered. "Right, now I know you're feeling scared right now, but try and pull yourself together, okay? I'm right here. We're going to see if this is real or not."

_Real or not_. Finally, when Patty said this, Maya took a solid breath, like she was remembering all these things she'd been reading, and maybe her professor was right, maybe this wasn't actually a contraction, not the kind that would lead to delivery. Maybe she was overreacting…

They'd sat there together for a while. The thing Maya had felt had stopped not so long after it had started, though with how panicked she'd been, she couldn't say for sure how long it had lasted. Minutes had gone by, and as the event continued to draw further and further away without reprise, Maya started to feel a lot more reassured, and maybe just the tiniest bit foolish, too. She'd known this could happen, she'd told herself again and again that it was normal, that it would pass, that it wasn't… real… And then the second it had happened she'd shot right past knowledge and into trepidation and fear.

"I'm sorry I freaked out on you…" she looked to her professor, who immediately shook her head.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Maya dear. It's only natural at this point for you to feel this way. You know, they can write as many books as they like, but there's nothing that can tell you exactly what you'll feel or how you'll react when this happens, whether it ended up being the real deal or not. And now you _have_ felt it, so the next time you'll know."

"Whether it's real or not…" Maya breathed.

"You'll know when it's the real one. For one thing, it will continue," Patty smiled kindly. Maya still couldn't help but feel just a bit embarrassed for how she'd lost her nerve so easily. The way she was rubbing her back though, they had clearly shifted away from their professor/student side into the friendlier, mentor/mentee side, where they were on a first name basis. Maybe it was okay to let her vulnerability show. "Why don't you go home, get some rest."

"I think I'm okay now," she shook her head. "Really. And I should…" she reached for her book. Patty scooped it up and held it just out of reach.

"You can do that at home," she pointed out. Maya really just wanted to be back there, she couldn't deny it, and much as she felt she needed to stay, she finally agreed. "Can someone come and take you there?" Patty asked, like she would do it herself if there was no one else who could.

In that moment, her first thought had been of Lucas, of course. But even as she thought about him, she also thought about how he'd react when she told him what happened. Sure, now that it was over and she knew that it hadn't been real, she was feeling more at ease again, but it wouldn't be the same for him, she knew… And they were all just so stressed right now, she didn't want to make things worse for him. He didn't need to know about this. For his own good, she had to keep him in the dark.

She still needed to get home, and as she went through the list of potential bus buddies, she soon ruled out her roommates. The easiest way to keep this contained would be for her not to introduce knowledge into the house. Once she got there, her options were limited by a number of factors, mostly availability. It eventually came down to two choices: Patty… or Rosa. This had potential for trouble, too, seeing as they worked together at the bookstore, Lucas and Rosa did, but it felt like the safest option. If it somehow got out that she'd been driven home earlier than expected, by her professor…

_Maya: Hey, are you at school?_

_Rosa: Yeah. A lot of senior stupidity is happening atm._

_Maya: Do you have to be there?_

_Rosa: Rather not._

_Maya: Can you meet me somewhere?_

_Rosa: Please._

About twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the office door, and Professor Robinson went and opened it to find their visitor had arrived. Rosa walked in, looking like she'd been in awe since she'd walked on to the university grounds.

"Please, can I start here like today?" she asked Maya, making her chuckle as much as the professor. "Why'd you want me to come? I know I didn't ask before, but I literally would have come if you'd asked me to lick a stamp, I was that bored and embarrassed of my generation."

"I need you to take me home," Maya told her, standing from the couch.

"Okay?" Rosa blinked, confused. "I don't have a car…"

"It's fine, we can take the bus, I just didn't want to go alone and…" Maya started to say, just as Patty came up and dropped two twenty-dollar bills into her hand.

"You're taking a cab, no argument."

"Okay, so what's going on?" Rosa asked as the two of them walked out of the university to go and hail a cab. Maya quickly recounted what had happened in Professor Robinson's office. Rosa was expectedly startled at first, though by Maya's assurances that she was better now and just wanted to be home, to take it easy for the rest of the day, she'd soon shifted into just being a friend by her side, which was what she'd needed all along.

They got in a cab, which took them back to the house. No one else was around at the moment, but off her awareness of the others' schedules, she knew it wouldn't be long before this changed. Rosa had immediately insisted that Maya go and sit up on the couch, or maybe upstairs on her bed if she felt up to the climb… She asked if she wanted anything to eat, if she could make her anything or order…

"Come with me," Maya cut her off.

"Yeah, okay," Rosa followed as she headed to the stairs. The dogs had been at their favorite spot, on the landing, though they'd come right down when Maya had opened the door. Now they were on her trail once more, all the way into hers and Lucas' room. "What's up?" Rosa asked. Maya went to the closet, pulling out a bag that looked brand new. She took it over to the bed, set it there, and then she proceeded to instruct Rosa on some items to collect and bring to the bed, which she did at once.

"No, not that one, the blue one," she told her when she held up two vests.

"Are you going somewhere?" Rosa asked now.

"Not yet, but when I do, I just… I want to be ready," Maya replied, gathering some things from the drawer where they'd started to collect baby things. A lot of it was already out in Austin, at the house, but they'd kept some of it here, just in case.

"Ready for… Oh," Rosa finally understood. "That was really freaky today, huh?" Maya let out a breath, looking at the onesie with the stars and moons she'd gotten from Willow.

"Yeah…" Maya admitted.

"But everything's okay, isn't it?"

"It is," Maya nodded. "It just… I don't know when the next time will be, and I don't know if that next time will be another false alarm or if it'll be the real thing." It couldn't be, not yet. They just needed a few more weeks, _he_ needed… She gasped.

"What is it? Is it happening again?" Rosa asked, dashing up to her side.

"No, no, it's just… I think I found his name..." she smiled.

"I thought you already had one. You wouldn't tell us what it was."

"Yeah, we had one picked for a while, but then it didn't feel right anymore…" Maya quickly explained, still hearing the new name echo in her mind. It was hard not to wonder if it would end up feeling wrong like the one before, too, but for now she chose to hold on to it and wait to see what would happen.

"Can I hear it this time?" Rosa pleaded innocently. Maya hesitated. They had been intent on keeping the name a secret until they actually had a baby to present to their friends and families, and they'd done that, back when they had been working with Alexander. And she would sort of feel bad if she told some people before she told other people, not to say that Rosa wasn't deserving of this 'honor'… especially now, with what she had done for her today…

"You keep it to yourself?" Maya gave her a look. Rosa nodded energetically. "Fine," Maya sighed, earning a grin. "Maybe you can help me figure out which spelling's best, I've seen it so many ways…"

They sat on the edge of the bed, and Maya opened a note on her phone, typing out the name first as her instincts told her to write it. Rosa peeked at the screen and let out a short squeak, which made the dogs bark. Maya calmed them easily before looking to her friend.

"Does that mean 'good' or…"

"No, I love it," Rosa assured her. "Although…" she snorted.

"What?" Maya asked.

"Well… the initials," Rosa pointed. Maya looked. "E.L.F." She groaned, but then she shrugged.

"Better that than a weird 80's alien," she decided.

"What?" Rosa blinked.

"Never mind," Maya waved it off. She guessed she could do with those initials. Christmas, elves… They'd kind of played a part in their story, hadn't they? "What do you think, for the spelling?"

"It's okay, it's good. _You_ like it, don't you?" Rosa asked. Maya looked at the screen again, set her free hand to her belly as she tried to conjure up the image she'd always had of this boy that was half her and half Huckleberry… She imagined herself calling to him, the way Lucas had gotten her to do, on New Year's Eve around the fire… Did she feel surer than she'd been back when she'd been calling him Alexander? More, or the same, or less? She wouldn't know, not until later, when she went and saw what Lucas thought. Like she'd told him, it wasn't because they had agreed she would name him if he was a boy that he wouldn't get a say in the choice.

As they'd continued gathering things Maya would need on the day the baby was born and when she and Lucas would take him home, some of the others had started to arrive. Rosa had gone down to say hello and effectually reveal her presence, on the excuse that she'd needed Maya's help with something for an assignment at school. Left alone with the dogs and her half-made bag, Maya debated calling her mother, to ask her about the false labor, but then changed her mind just as quick, not wanting to put any additional stress on her at the moment.

In the end, she'd texted Willow, who'd had much experience with this in the weeks leading up to Zola's birth. It had helped. By the time Rosa had come back up to continue helping her, with a report that dinner was being made down below, Maya was reasonably more reassured than she'd already been.

Then, when Lucas had come home and found the two of them upstairs with the bag, she'd debated telling him, but eventually she'd stuck to her first decision. For now, ignorance would be bliss.

She was done with the bag by the time dinner was served. Going into the kitchen, she remembered that Lucas was in the basement, working on his paper, so she made him a plate and went to bring it to him. Rosa asked if she wanted a hand, as casually as possible, to which Maya promised she would be fine, that she would be careful. She climbed down the stairs, hearing the rapid clicking of fingers typing away. When Lucas looked up from his screen and realized she was coming, he set his laptop aside and stood at once to go and relieve her of the plate before she'd made it halfway down.

"Thanks," he told her.

"Thank _you_," she countered. "Not a fan of stairs these days, you know?"

"You know, not crazy about them either," he smiled. "Did you already eat?"

"I will when I go back up," she shrugged, coming down the rest of the way. He looked at her for a moment, then put his plate down before hiking his way upstairs, two steps at a time. Seconds later, he returned with her plate in hand. "Secret basement dinner, I can get on board with that," she smiled as they went and sat on the couch in the music room, where he'd been working. "How's the paper coming along?" she asked while he handed her plate over and he picked up his own.

"Pretty well," he nodded. "Did so much research, it's mostly a matter of putting everything together."

"Tell me about it," Maya smiled.

"Yeah…"

"No, I mean it, tell me about your research, I want to know." The meal thus consisted mostly of his telling her about what he'd learned, which became something beneficial for him, in that it gave him new ideas, allowed him to refine his structure. "You can go back to work up in our room," Maya told him, when they'd finished eating. "I'm done with the bag and I'm too tired to open a book so I'll probably just go and watch TV for a while until I go to bed."

"If you need to go and lie down, I'm probably just going to stay down here anyway. It helps sometimes to start and finish writing in the same place, you know?" he shrugged.

"I'll leave you to it then," she leaned over to kiss him before moving to stand.

"You can stay," he stopped her. "I mean, if you want to… I kind of like having you there, like my muse or something." She laughed.

"I'm very muse like," she agreed, settling back in.

For some time, she sat at his side, then sort of lay across the couch, curled up on her side across two thirds of the seat. Lucas sat at the other end, typing away. Whenever he'd stop, to reread a paragraph, or check his notes, or think about what he'd add next, he'd read over and give her feet what relief he could provide. In no time, she'd dozed off, and he kept writing. When he was done, sending the document up to print, he gathered his things, carried them to their room, returned, brought the long-emptied dishes to the kitchen, then returned once again to wake Maya.

"What time is it?" she asked, half awake.

"Bed time," he reported. "I can leave you here, otherwise you need to get up."

"Are you suggesting I'm too heavy now," she teased as she sat up.

"I said no such thing," he promised as he helped her up.

"I know you didn't, you're my Huckleberry man," she crooned up at him with a lazy smile, which he met with a kiss. "Come on, let's start up, I have a feeling it's going to take me a while, it's been a long day," she sighed as they went.

"Oh, yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah…" she sighed, pausing after a beat as she realized what she was about to say, and that she was trying not to get him caught up in it. _He_ would say that he was already caught up in it, because it was her and the baby and they mattered more to him than anything else in the world, but then he held that spot along with their son in _her_ book, and she needed to spare him what little worries she could, when he didn't need to be feeling them. "I'll be glad when the semester's over and I can ride the end of this pregnancy into the sunset…" That much wasn't a lie at least.

"You'll ride it into Austin at least," he smiled as they reached the top of the basement steps and made their way to the next staircase, to take them to the second floor. She chuckled.

"On a float," she vowed. "With pageant waves," she mimed. "Not that I ever did any of those, but I could have."

"You would have won," Lucas declared, forever her number one fan.

"Awww," she laughed. By the time they got to their room, got changed, and climbed into bed, she felt like she would be asleep soon, whether she allowed it or not. "Lucas…"

"Yeah?" he asked, his thumb stroking at her shoulder.

"I think I found his name…"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	27. For Beginners

_Chapter 27_  
_For Beginners_

The more they'd gotten to spend weekends at the house, the closer they'd get to the move, Lucas came to find how much he just enjoyed waking up here, just him and Maya together. As the renovations advanced each week, it would feel as though they were already living here, sharing their time between one home and the other. And whenever they'd be on this side… It was the goal, it was what they had been working for all this time, and he wanted it so much.

It was Saturday morning now, which meant they were at the house again, only when he opened his eyes, all he saw was the giant pillow and no Maya. After remembering that they were not in a house of six here, that he wouldn't wake up anyone for making a noise, he called out her name.

"Present!" her voice came from somewhere beyond their room.

"Bathroom?"

"Nope."

"What are you doing then?" he asked, climbing out of bed, running a hand through his hair.

"Waiting for you to get up," she reported with that chipper sort of voice where he could picture her face, smiling innocently.

"Well, I'm up now," he moved out into the hall in search of her.

"Good, because I need a hand."

"With what?" He looked into the nursery, across from their room, and here she was, sitting on the floor next to the crib with her baby sketchbook and some pencils.

"No, I literally need a hand, I can't get up from here," she admitted with a frown as she gave him a demonstration of her inability before giving up and looking up again. "Please, before I really do have to go?" He smiled and moved up to her, helping her back to her feet.

"How long have you been out here?"

"No idea, a while? Woke up from this dream, and it gave me an idea for the mural, so I got up and came in here to draw it," she explained, opening up the book and showing it to him. He would look from the page to the walls, feeling the images easily transferred from one surface to the other.

"I think this is one of my favorite things you've done," he nodded appreciatively.

"Just wait until it's up there," she smiled. It had been so important to her that this would be something to sort of evolve with their son, from a baby to little boy, growing and growing… Someday he might grow out of it, might have to share the space with a sibling, and they would have to paint right over it, but that was a distant future for all of them and nothing she needed to worry herself over.

After breakfast, Lucas drove Maya off to the pool for water aerobics. She'd been going every weekend for four weeks now, and on Wednesdays back in Houston, too. Between this, and the yoga, and the fact that she wasn't working at the restaurant anymore, she had to say that she felt in much better shape than she'd done for a while, not so long ago. This was saying something, seeing as she was so much further along now than she'd been then, with all the 'perks' of that progress.

Much as some of the credit went to the shift in her routine, as far as she was concerned a portion of that credit also went to the anticipation of those weeks going by, coupled with the way their life in Austin expanding as it had done in the last four weeks. They may not have been starting completely from scratch, with their families being out here with them, the whole reason for their move, but they _were_ leaving their whole community of friends and acquaintances behind, which couldn't help but be unnerving, especially with a baby on the way.

"I don't see you for a week, and it looks like it's been closer to two," Billie chuckled when she walked into the locker room and found Maya pulling her shirt off, her swimsuit already underneath.

"You're one to talk," she smirked. She wasn't so far off though, was she? She'd been growing steadily over the past months, but lately it did feel like everything was starting to move faster. It was a wonder her skin could keep up.

"And happy to show it," Billie twisted sideways for a profile.

"Oh, show it," Maya laughed with a nod. Billie bowed her head and spread her arms in what might have been taken for a curtsey, though Maya swore there was something in her eyes like an unspoken thought at the same time. But then it didn't remain that way for long.

As they finished getting ready, Billie recounted the day she'd realized she might be pregnant. She'd been right here, at the pool, assisting Etta with the class, and they'd been doing counts, which had led to her starting a count of her own: a count of days, which all added up to one glaringly missed period. She hadn't thought too much of it at first, or at least she hadn't come around to the possibility of her being pregnant immediately. She was regular now, but there had been a time where she could go months without. It went back to the time in her life when she'd been a competitive swimmer, the same time where she'd struggled with eating properly… or at all.

"When it got as bad as it ever got, when I started to make a change, I gave it all up, the swimming, even for fun. Just the smell of chlorine would take me back. After a while, I started to miss it, started to attend competitions. Etta spotted me, remembered me from some of her niece's competitions. She got me back in the water, got me the job… Anyway…" she breathed, shaking her head like she hadn't meant to divert so far but didn't exactly regret it either. "That day," she reminded herself of what she'd been saying before. "We talked after class, and she started asking questions, let me connect the dots on my own. Never felt so happy when I did, not even the biggest competition win."

Maya felt privileged to have been told about all this, to get to know this new friend so much more. She responded by sharing the story of how _she_ had discovered that she was having a baby. It made Billie chuckle to hear about all their running around and the missed chances for getting to look at those tests and, much as she hadn't found it funny at the time, looking back on it now Maya was definitely laughing along with her. She went on to tell her about how she and Lucas had found their happiness in this news, despite the changes it had already required in their lives, such as this move back to Austin, necessary sacrifices like school, and friends, and for Maya the band.

But they'd been lucky, too, and she acknowledged this, too. The house was easily the biggest check in that column. She'd mentioned it in passing before, but today when she brought it up she ended up with an invitation to her new friend, for her to drop by after their class was over that day. After Billie had happily accepted, they had both made the next leap together: they had to invite Ainsley and Cameron to come along, too.

The four of them had been picked up from the pool by Tom Friar, who'd been at the house working when Lucas had brought Maya here earlier. He'd left to go pick up something, which now landed him with the task of playing chauffeur to his future daughter-in-law and her friends, which he happily did. He also suggested the stop they made to grab take-out they would bring back to the house for lunch.

"One day, Jonah and I want a house like that," Billie looked on after the car had pulled to a stop and she'd climbed out. "We're much too far from land like this."

Cameron quickly found himself in the arms of a beaming Tom Friar, leaving the trio to move into the house at leisure. Maya would playfully tease and call this his 'grandpa training,' but really to know just how much the man looked forward to being her boy's grandfather would only ever make her heart swell with joy. The man was just so ready for that kid…

They could hear hammering happening upstairs, so they decided to wait until Lucas would come down to make the introductions between him and Billie. Until then, they got settled around the kitchen table with their lunch, making plates for themselves and a smaller one for Cameron, once he'd be returned to his mother. Tom would eventually go back to bring his son and the others currently helping him the items he'd gone to get before stopping by the pool.

"Sooner or later, the smell of food will get them here," Maya promised with confidence.

Midway through the meal, which got lost in a conversation of foods they'd either stopped or started to eat in the midst of their pregnancies, Maya heard her phone give a chime and reached to see who had written to her. When she did, she sat up and then stood.

"Be right back. Don't eat that," she pointed to her plate before moving off into the living room.

Two days ago, she'd had another appointment with Dr. Tanaka. Much as he would have done it if she asked him to, Maya didn't want Lucas to have to miss another afternoon of work at his aunt's clinic. Instead, she'd asked Willow if she might be able and willing to drive her to Austin and back, and her friend accepted at once. They'd taken off, leaving baby Zola to her great-grandparents, who were more than happy to look after her for a while. When they'd reached the clinic, Maya had insisted that Willow didn't need to tag along if she felt like wandering around for a while. After receiving a few suggestions, Willow had driven off, leaving Maya to go in on her own.

She had been sitting there a few minutes, trying to explore a bit of melody which had been running through her mind for half the drive into the city, when she heard a voice she recognized and looked up to confirm it was just who she'd thought it would be. Brianna was at the receptionist's desk, checking in for her own appointment. When she moved toward the waiting area and spotted Maya there, she stopped in surprise, but then she smiled, hesitantly moving toward her. Maya tipped her head to the empty seat at her side and the girl came forward with assurance now.

"I wanted to talk to you again after my appointment two weeks ago, but you were gone and I never got the chance. How are you?" Maya asked, even as her own eyes showed her a notable change in the young mother to be. She wasn't so awkward anymore, still shy, but less prone to try and make herself small.

"I'm okay… mostly… Everything's normal though, I think, so I have to get used to it," she shrugged. Realizing that this 'mostly' had to do with symptoms of the pregnancy, Maya leaned into the possibility that overall this was her biggest issue. The change in her demeanor suggested there was cause for optimism that other things were going better than two weeks before.

"Unfortunately, yeah," she smiled and nodded.

"The doctor said I was due in October. I don't know what I'm going to do about school, maybe I can study from home," Brianna went on. At this, Maya was struck with a thought she couldn't believe she hadn't had the last time. She asked Brianna what school she went to. When the girl replied, Maya smiled. "Why?"

"I went there, too," Maya told her. "Do you have Mr. Matthews in history by any chance?" Brianna nodded. "You should talk to him about this. Tell him you're a friend of mine, he'll help you figure out a plan. He and I go way back."

"You do?" Brianna asked, surprised.

"His daughter and I have been best friends since I was six," Maya revealed. Brianna took this in like it reminded her of something.

"He said his daughter was in college out of town…"

"That's Riley," Maya smiled. Brianna promised she would talk to him. "How's it going with… everything else?" Maya went on to ask. She didn't have to say much more for Brianna to know what she was getting at.

"I told my parents," she nodded. "My mom cried at first… My dad yelled at first…"

"And then?" Maya slowly prompted.

"Well, we talked. It was so awkward, but I had no choice. I had to be honest," Brianna explained, sounding much more like this honesty had been for her sake more than anyone else. She couldn't have dealt with lying. "I told them that… I wasn't sure about keeping the baby. We talked some more, and that helped a lot, for all of us. I just wanted to say thanks, for last time, when you came and pretended you needed a pen to talk to me." Maya bit back a smile, busted.

"Anytime. So… did you decide?"

"Not yet," Brianna admitted. "I still haven't told…" She stalled here, like she wasn't sure she should say. So, Maya gave the girl her number, telling her to call or write if she needed to talk.

And now, two days later, she had just written: _I need to talk._

"Hey, are you okay?" Maya asked when she picked up.

"Yeah," Brianna replied, though her tone told a different story. "I'm not bothering you, am I?"

"No, it's fine, I was just… Actually, you want to come meet me? I'll give you the address."

By the time they spotted the girl coming along down the road, Maya had given Ainsley and Billie a quick rundown of her first encounter with Brianna, without going into too much detail, so not to say anything the girl may not have wanted shared. When she came close enough now to see them there, Maya and Billie with their bellies in full force, and Ainsley with her son perched in her arms, Brianna looked like she was taking it all in. She was walking into a group, whether she'd become part of it or not.

"You hungry?" Maya asked as they went in.

"Yeah," Brianna replied so fast as to be on reflex, which showed with the surge of shyness. They returned to the kitchen and Maya brought her a plate. Billie and Ainsley both looked like they weren't sure if they should stay or step aside and let them talk, but Brianna caught on to this and shrugged at them. They could stay.

"So, what's going on?" Maya asked. Brianna took a few moments before she started to speak. She hid this with taking a few bites before finally saying what she'd needed to say.

"No one at school knows about me… except Mr. Matthews," she started, sparing a look to Maya, who nodded. "Just my parents, and the people at the clinic, and you all here, I guess. Not my friends, and not…" she stalled, but 'the father' seemed like a safe bet. "Dr. Tanaka told me when it would have been… conceived… and I just… I don't know… which of the two…" her voice grew quieter and quieter the more she advanced in this statement, but not so quiet that they didn't catch it.

"Oh, dear…" Billie blurted out, getting looks from Maya and Ainsley and responding with a mouthed 'sorry.' "Well, now, are you sure both times were… well…"

"There's only been the two times _ever_, but yeah," Brianna looked at her.

"Okay, okay, it's fine," Maya assured her. "Look, these guys, you… well, you know them from school or…" She was growing sympathetic to Billie for her outburst now.

"Yeah, well… one of them's in my class, the other's a year older."

"Are you afraid of what they'll say?" Ainsley asked.

"Considering one of them is my boyfriend and the other isn't?" Brianna looked up at her. No one replied. "Maybe I shouldn't have said it like that, we weren't dating at the time, that happened sort of… in between the two…" she gestured an invisible timeline with her hands to try and explain, though she set them down again with a sigh soon after; it wasn't making things _that_ much better. "So, it could be his, but it also could be the other guy…"

"The boyfriend one, what's he like?" Maya asked her, her tone suggesting 'what will he think of you being pregnant?'

"Jay? He's kind of the best… I don't want him to get hurt because of this…"

"You might not have a choice," Maya gave her an apologetic look. "One way or the other, this is happening to you," she nodded to her little belly, hidden as it was. "And it might not show on them, but it's happening to one of them, too, or it will, if this baby's born." Brianna nodded. She couldn't help but agree, but it still upset her visibly. Maya and Ainsley, sitting on either side of her, reached to touch one of her arms in reassurance, while Billie reached as far across the table as she could.

It was at this point that Lucas came into the kitchen, with hunger and the promise of food having finally drawn him away from his work upstairs. He stopped here, coming upon the scene, and the quartet around the table looked at him.

"Hey…" he spoke uncertainly.

"Brianna, you remember my fiancé, Lucas? Billie, Lucas. Lucas, Billie," Maya rattled off introductions. While Billie stood to shake his hand and chatter, as she would, Maya looked to Brianna.

"Maybe I should go," the girl spoke quietly.

"If that's what you want," Maya whispered back. "But you don't have to, really. You're welcome here as long as you like," she smiled. Brianna smiled back, just barely.

"Your friends are nice," she declared.

"Yeah, they are," Maya agreed. This gave her a thought. "You want to stick around for the afternoon, dinner?" She nodded. "I need to make a call."

Forty minutes later, as the four of them sat out front, watching Cameron teeter his way along on his baby legs, a car pulled up. Maya and Lucas had yet to encounter Aaron and Marius at the same time, only meeting them twice each, always with Samantha, as they accompanied their surrogate in prenatal classes. Now, the three of them came along. Aaron carried flowers.

"We would have brought wine, but we figured this might not be the crowd for it," he joked, presenting them to Maya, who laughed.

"Imagine if we could, bunch of pregnant women rolling around drunk… I start losing my balance fully sober these days," she nodded to herself.

They spent some time going around the house, looking at all the work which had been done over the past weeks and months, and the things that still needed to be done… Looking at it now, Maya felt for the first time like they were actually close enough to done that, if they kept this up, they really would be done in time. They only had one more weekend like this and then on the next one they'd be coming to stay. By the looks of things, she'd say one more week, a full one, now that they'd be living here, and then the house would be as ready as it could get, without going into additional projects, external things…

After the tour, Maya and her guests ended up sitting outside again, now with Aaron, Marius, and Samantha. Whenever he'd take a break, Lucas would come and join them, as would his father, and Bishop and Dylan, who were helping today. The afternoon went by in conversation, and while it could have been easy for topics to end up revolving around pregnancy anecdotes – with so many of them being or having been pregnant recently, or even just around children, with all of them becoming parents for the first time – it wasn't so. They did talk about it, a little. In particular, Aaron and Marius had talked about how deeply they'd wanted this child they were having, the two of them and Samantha recounting the process of going from a choice, to a plan, to enacting the plan and hoping beyond hope that it would actually work.

"We were calling and writing so many times," Marius recalled, looking just a bit embarrassed, though Samantha just smiled.

"When I thought it might have worked and I took the test, I rushed over to their house to show them. I couldn't wait to see the look on their faces," she went on. Aaron gave a dramatic re-enactment, making the others laugh.

"Many tears," he revealed.

"So many," Marius agreed with a smile, to both his surrogate and his husband, to him especially. He was so serious looking, composed and precise, where Aaron was loose and lively, they might not have seemed like they'd go together, but you only had to see them together, around each other, to know they couldn't have ever belonged with anyone else.

They had all really gotten to know one another as a group that day, and by the time they'd leave, after dinner, Maya and Lucas both would truly feel that this group as they'd had it would be one they'd see many times again. There were variables still. They didn't know what would happen after Samantha had the baby and gave him or her over to their fathers, if she would still hang around with them, with this child that was both hers and not hers. And there was Brianna, too, the question of whether she'd keep her baby or not, in every sense of the word. For now, the only thing they knew was that these were their friends.

With their guests and their helpers gone for the night – except for Bishop, who had nowhere else to go and would still be helping the next day – Maya and Lucas had gone off to bed after spending some time sitting outside again.

"I know you've been working so hard all this time, but I think this might be my favorite part…" she'd told him as they sat gazing at the stars.

"I thought it might be. It's kind of mine, too."

The next morning, Lucas didn't wake up alone, although Maya had managed to prop herself up as she continued to add details to her sketch of their boy's nursery walls. She had the sketchbook sort of held in mid-air with one hand as she drew with the other.

"Are you trying to visualize?" Lucas asked, amused.

"No, just trying to draw a straight line, and if I set it here," Maya demonstrated, putting the book on top of her bump. Two seconds later, it started to wobble, like the surface underneath was moving. "Looks like he's got the hiccups," she reported, removing the book again. Lucas laughed, running his hand over her belly, moving over to kiss it, like their son would understand.

"I should get you one of those breakfast trays."

"It better have tall legs to deal with all this," she joined her hand to his. For a little while they just lay/sat there, looking at her, thinking about the baby, just weeks from being out of her and in their arms. Much as the whole experience had not all been sunshine and flowers, the thought they shared was how they would sort of miss… this, the closeness and the wonder brought on as they watched her belly grow, as they would just hold to one another, feeling their love expand along with her, with their sprout. Soon, they would have him with them, and from that point, there were other things on their mind, no more avoidable…

"I don't want to mess this up…" Lucas heard himself say. Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, until he felt her hand lay gently at the back of his head, running through his hair. He turned his eyes up at her, found her staring back.

"You're not going to," she promised. She knew what he was talking about, of course she would. At the same time, he felt he could see this thought play out behind her eyes. 'If anyone's going to, it won't be you,' it seemed to suggest, and he moved up to be able and look at her eye to eye.

"Can we make a deal right now?" he asked.

"What kind of deal?" she asked back, smiling.

"I know we both feel things about ourselves, whether we're able to admit them or not, as much as I know we feel things about each other that would say the opposite. So let's just… aspire… I will aspire to be as good as I know you'll be…" he told her, letting her complete the statement in her head.

"I'm still scared," she had to admit, closing her arms around him.

"I know," he promised. "So am I."

They had stayed here, holding to one another, for a minute more, until Maya's phone rang. She frowned, looking over to see who it was, which would decide whether she picked it up or not. She saw it was her father and sighed.

"Can you just…" she pointed, and Lucas carefully reached over her and handed the phone to her. "I appreciate," she touched his cheek before answering. "Hey, Dad."

"Hey, you're going to your aerobics thing today, yeah?"

"Yup, leaving in like… an hour," she told him after pulling the phone back to see the time again. "Why? You want to come splash around with us?" she asked, trying not to laugh at the image of her father in there with the rest of them.

"I'm afraid I'll have to pass. And you might not get to go either."

"Why?" she asked, frowning. "Is Mom okay?" Lucas looked back at her.

"She is, for now. She doesn't know what to make of this any more than I do. Your grandparents are here." Maya's eyes bugged out, enough that Lucas sat up, trying to get an answer out of her as to what was happening.

"My what now?"

"Kermit's parents, both of them. They're sitting in our living room right now."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	28. Charles and Elizabeth, aka

_Chapter 28_  
_Charles and Elizabeth, aka_

_Maya: Can you let Etta know I won't make it in today? And Ainsley, too, if you see her._

_Billie: Sure. Are you okay?_

_Maya: Yeah, I'm fine. Family stuff. I'll explain later._

The ride up from the house had been spent in silence. On the one hand, Lucas wasn't sure if she wanted some quiet to think about what they were going to be walking into, and on the other… Maya was having too many thoughts to even manage to sort a single one out.

Her grandparents… No, her father's parents. They had never been grandparents to her, and they'd barely been parents to their kids, kicking one out and estranging the other… If it wasn't that she worried for what their presence might do to her mother, with the state she was in, and if her father hadn't asked her to come… She took one deep breath after another, one hand planted low on her belly and the other running up and down its curve. The baby wasn't being so active right now, which was probably just as well.

She had to figure out what to do before they got there, some kind of plan or…

"Damn it…" she muttered under her breath, taking her phone from her bag and putting in a call.

"Hi!"

"Hey, Lizard," Maya couldn't help but smile. "Is Dad around? I need to talk to him right now."

"Daaaaad!" Eliza's voice could be heard calling. "Maya's on the phone!"

"Well, this is a nice surprise, this isn't our usual…" Kermit's voice came on a few seconds later.

"I need your help," she told him, words she never saw herself speaking to him. "Your parents are here, in Austin, at _my_ parents' house." There was an extended moment of silence, and she didn't need a video to tell her what his face must have looked like. He wasn't about to ask her if she was joking or anything; why would she ever joke about something like that? "I'm on my way there now, no way I'm letting Mom handle them on her own, especially now. She's pregnant, too, just barely, and she already almost lost it once. But I don't know what to do when I get there. Why would they come here?"

"I… I don't know," he told her. "Look, if I knew that getting on a plane and meeting you there would do anything to help, I would, but I'm too far away."

"I know," Maya assured him.

"Look, I'll stay next to the phone, if you need anything, you call me back. I really wish I could do more, but I haven't seen them in two decades…"

"It's alright, I get it. Thanks." Almost in the same moment as she hung up with him, she put in a second call.

"Maya, hi, how…" Luna answered, but Maya just as quickly cut her off.

"Do you have any idea why your parents would go to Austin right now?" Another silence.

"Oh, no…" Luna spoke quietly. "Maya, this is my fault, I…"

"How?" Maya asked.

"It's just that… ever since you and I met up again, I've been thinking a lot about them, and how things ended between us, and everything that happened with Kermit. And after a while, I just… I needed to get some things off my chest. So, I pulled a move from my father's playbook, and I wrote them a letter."

"What did you tell them?" Maya asked, not so much upset but just needing to know what they were dealing with.

"A lot of things about how upset I was for what was said after my divorce, and how they abandoned their son, and their granddaughter, and how we were all doing fine without them, me in Tucson, Kermit in New York, and you… in Austin."

And they'd come here…

"Look, I'm on my way, I'll find a sitter for the girls, I'll figure something out…"

"Luna, just wait before you go and do anything," Maya told her aunt. "Not until we know if they'll even stick around." _Doubt it. If they don't leave on their own, I'll make them leave if I have to._

"Are you sure?" Luna asked, sounding like she could start crying at any second.

"I am," Maya told her, letting out a breath, even as she felt her nerves start to twist, seeing how they were arriving at her parents' house now.

"I'm really sorry…"

"You have nothing to apologize for, okay?" she insisted, taking her aunt's anguish as more fire, more strength for what was about to happen. "I'll call you later."

After hanging up, Maya turned to look at Lucas. He was staring over at the house, like he'll see something. He turned to her now, his eyes asking without words if she was sure about this.

"Whatever happens in there, please, just…" she started to say, finally just closing her eyes. She knew how protective he was of her, of their unborn son, and she loved him for it, but she also didn't want him getting carried away and getting in trouble.

"I've got you, okay?" he reached over, touching her cheek. She leaned to it, gave him a nod.

They got out of the car and started for the house. Had they ever been so nervous to walk up this path? Lucas had been, in that dreaded period where he hadn't been welcome, after the accident. Maya had been, the first time she and her mother had arrived, after two days driving cross-country. This might have been worse. Maya used her key to let them in, feeling like she was opening the door into a black hole that was about to suck them in.

Everything was way too quiet. Had they le… It only took two steps through the door to start and see into the living room, and on that second step Maya spotted Shawn sitting there, with that very serious look on his face that said 'If I open my mouth, you won't like what I have to say.' But then he looked over and saw her, and he got up at once to come and meet her and Lucas. There was no sign of her mother, her siblings, the dogs… but one more step had just started to show a man and woman sitting opposite from where Shawn had been.

"Hey," he hugged her, for a moment just leaving every uncomfortable thing behind and becoming her father again. "So sorry to have to pull you into this," he spoke quietly.

"Where…" she whispered.

"Upstairs," he tipped his head up. "She won't come down, and as far as I'm concerned it's for the best. The girls and MJ are sticking with her."

"What about…" Lucas asked, turning his eyes toward the living room.

"Well, _he_ hasn't said much. If you ask me, it wasn't his idea to show up here today." This was at least some information. So, her grandmother had been the one to decide to come here. But she'd actually convinced her grandfather to come, too, so what did that mean?

"And her?" she asked.

"When I opened the door, before they even said a word, I knew who they had to be. You kind of look like her, the… family resemblance is there. I don't know, I should have closed the door in their faces, but I couldn't do it." _Because we look alike._ "Your grandmother asked after Katy, after you. I went and told Katy they were here, and she just looked like…" he shook his head, the concern clear in his face. Maya could understand, of course. Charles and Elizabeth Hart had been the start of so much strife in her life.

"I should go see her," she breathed. She knew she wouldn't be able to though, not until she dealt with… those two… "What happened after that?" she asked her father with a sigh.

"I came back down, and he was sitting on the couch, same as he is now. She was looking at pictures on the walls," he pointed to the one in particular, which showed him and her and her mother on the day Katy and Shawn had gotten married. For all the features she'd inherited from her mother, she had to say, this was on picture in particular where she'd always thought the Hart side of her showed so much. She didn't know why, but it was there. "I called you when I was going up to tell your mother. After I came down, we all sat down. Your grandmother's been asking about me, how long I've been around, and about the kids…"

"So it's been awkward," Lucas surmised. Shawn breathed out, running a hand over the back of his neck.

"Do they know?" Maya asked, turning her eyes down to herself.

"If they do, I didn't tell them," her father promised. She looked back to Lucas. _I hate this_ her eyes said. He shook his head. _You don't have to._ The baby kicked, and her hand went to her belly. She wasn't going to let them make her run.

"I want to know what kind of people they are, don't I?" she looked from Lucas to her father. "That's about as good of a way to find out as I could ask for, isn't it?"

"If it's too much," Shawn shook his head. She knew what he meant. She couldn't let herself get worked up enough that she might go into labor. Much as the baby was at a point where he had chances on his side to be okay, she'd rather he stayed right where he was for as long as he needed.

Stepping away from her father and her fiancé, Maya could feel the anxiety inside her, much as she tried not to. Whatever those two people sitting on her parents' couch may have had in mind, they'd probably look at her face for all of two seconds before they'd notice that not so little surprise growing inside her, and after that… They would know she had arrived, no matter how quietly she and Shawn had been speaking. They'd stayed on the couch all this time, but they knew she'd be there, so she couldn't even get a moment to see them without them seeing her, especially as the creak of the floor betrayed her approach.

As she moved into view, they were both looking toward her, and she had to take a good, deep breath. It was a lot to take in and she had to do it fast. On the left, Elizabeth Hart. Her grandmother. Her father was right, the resemblance was absolutely there. She looked most of all like Luna, like Cara… but she was in that face, too, she could see it. And that face… It found hers, and it felt like the woman as a whole was just overwhelmed, seeing her granddaughter for the first time. It actually took several more seconds than two before her eyes ever went traveling anywhere beyond her face, before she discovered she was weeks away from becoming a great-grandmother, and when she did, her hand went to her mouth with a gasp.

On the right, Charles Hart. Her grandfather. There had been a brief period, when she'd been taking that deep dive in baby name books and sites, where she'd thought that would be a nice name for her son. Charles… Charlie… But then she'd remembered this was _his_ name, and then she just couldn't look at it the same way. He looked like an older version of his son, absolutely, but it was like… the Garcia twins, like her twin sisters… They had the same face, but used it so differently as to look very distinct, separate. Her grandfather and her birth father may have shared familiar traits, but where her father's face had a softness to it, his father's was so tightly locked as to release not the slightest emotion. He was looking at her, and she had no idea what he was thinking. He'd looked at her, the moment she'd appeared, and it hadn't been two seconds at all, more like a single one. She'd walked in, and his eyes had traveled over her from her head to her feet in one motion before coming back up, making one stop at her belly and then returning to her face.

_You've already made up your mind about me, haven't you? What are you thinking, that I'm making the same 'mistake' he did?_

Right then, her resolve had been found. It told her that if there was one person she needed to stand up to, it was that man with the stone face. She could give him some stone, too, and she hated to think she might have gotten it from him, but there was no way around it, not now. She slowly walked further into the living room, until she stood in front of them. Her hands were folded over her belly, and she stared back at her grandfather, giving as good as she got.

"Hi," she spoke, her voice even and unwavering. "My name is Maya, I'm your son's daughter," she declared, refusing to call herself their granddaughter, not when they hadn't earned it by anything but blood. "I spoke to Aunt Luna," she told them. "She told me she wrote you a letter. Is that why you're here?" Charles looked to his wife, who was looking at her. "I'm getting the feeling you don't want to be here, Mr. Hart," she told her grandfather. He looked back at her.

"You can say that," he spoke, and for all her intent to hold steady, the sound of his voice, so much like her father's, broke through her defenses for all of a second.

"But you _are_ here, and I'm guessing that no matter how much she tried to convince you, you wouldn't even be here if you hadn't decided it yourself. So, what convinced you?"

"Please…" Elizabeth turned to her husband.

"Lizzie did not tell me where we were really going," he told Maya. "So, you're right on that, little girl. I wouldn't have come if I'd known what she was getting me into."

There was a beat of silence here, as his words settled on to them. Maya looked to her grandmother sitting there, and if she'd felt in any way resentful toward her coming into this, those feelings were now receding to levels so low as to be insignificant. But him… A few paces away, much as they'd stayed back and let her take this on all on her own, Maya could just feel Lucas and her father get closer and closer to having had enough. The 'little girl' part was like throwing accelerant on the flame.

"If you think you can throw me off by belittling me, you're barking up the wrong tree there, Charles. You come into my world, I don't care if you knew or not, you're here now, and you won't speak to me that way." She took a breath to steady herself. "We clearly have nothing to say to each other, so, by all means, there's the door," she pointed. He stood up, boiling under the surface. She matched him, fury for fury. He wasn't going to get to her.

"Lizzie," he turned to his wife, still sitting on the couch, and Maya hated to think he expected her to follow after him like an obedient dog.

"She and I might have a lot to talk about on the other hand," Maya looked at her, showing a softer expression here. Elizabeth Hart looked up at her for a moment, then to her husband. When she stood, Maya felt her courage start to deflate.

"You go on ahead, Chuck. I'll see you at the hotel," she declared, and Maya straightened up again.

This was too much for him. Without another word, Charles Hart stormed off. Shawn gladly held the door open for him, then let it swing back shut when he was gone.

When she heard the door click shut, Maya released that façade she'd been willing into existence from the moment she'd stepped out to address her grandfather. It made the ground feel just a bit unsteady under her feet, and by some chance, the first hand that managed to get to her, to offer support, came to edge out Lucas and her father both before they could get to her.

"I'm fine," she said, before she could even realize the hand she was holding was her grandmother's. "It was just… it was a lot," she slowly looked back up, looking into that face that looked like her own in some places. "Hi…"

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt to sit," Elizabeth Hart told her, with a small smile tinged in concern.

"Probably, yeah," Maya agreed, following her to go and sit. Lucas was just behind her, while Shawn had gone – she rightly suspected – to go and fill her a glass of water. "You can stand down now," she looked to Lucas with a reassuring smile as he leaned in to briefly embrace her, kissing the top of her head before rising again. "This is Lucas," she told the woman sat at her side. "He's my fiancé… among other things," she set her hand back to her belly, as close to reaching for her son and promising him that all was well. Lucas reached his hand out, and Kermit's mother shook it.

"It's nice to meet you," she told him.

"I… yeah… I mean…" Lucas replied, clearly unsure what to say. _Was_ it nice to meet her, too.

"I truly apologize for putting you in this position," she told him, understanding, looking to Maya, too, and then to Shawn, as he returned with a glass he passed to his daughter. "I guess… I wanted to take a chance. I should have known it wouldn't go any other way, I…" she shook her head, bowing her head for a moment before raising it again, like she was telling herself 'no, you won't do that.' "Charles made his choice a long time ago. I wanted to try and make my own. I shouldn't have involved him."

"Well, I had him," Maya raised her glass in cheers.

"You most certainly did," Elizabeth gave a small, impressed laugh, which made Maya laugh along. "You… you remind me of my Luna so much," her grandmother reached a tentative hand to touch her face but seemed to think it wouldn't be a good idea, and right about then, with all she'd seen and heard, Maya felt she understood and knew her enough to get who she was and why she had or hadn't done what she had or hadn't done. In that instant, the choice was easy, and she made it by stalling the woman's hand in its retreat and allowing it to continue its journey to cup the side of her face. "That smile…"

"Yeah, Cara has it, too," Maya told her. There was no recognition in her when she said the name, and maybe it was her growing maternal side reaching out, but she pulled out her phone, quickly tracking down a picture taken the last time her siblings had been with her. It was only her and the four of them, not her father yet, but it was still her, and Sam, and Cara, and Eliza, and Wyatt, five grandchildren that Elizabeth Hart had never seen or known. Maya told her a little about each of them, and it was like each of them was bringing a bit more light to the woman's face.

"All these years, I thought he was with you and your mother, in New York. But in Luna's letter, it said you and your mother were here, in Texas. I had to know…" Up until not too long ago, she might have told a different story to her grandmother. But this was the time when she'd come along, and for that she could genuinely say…

"We all ended up where we belonged. With the people who belonged with us." She looked to Lucas, to Shawn, smiling at the both of them. "Wouldn't trade any of them. Especially this guy," she looked back down to herself.

"You're having a boy," Elizabeth smiled, and Maya smiled back, nodding. If she was ever one to put credence to signs, right in that moment her sprout started to move within her, like he was telling her to go ahead and take a chance.

"Give me your hand," she told her grandmother. When she did, Maya led it to where she might feel her great-grandson. She had missed so much over the years, for reasons they would have plenty of time to discuss. All Maya could say was that, right here and now, she had only known the woman for a handful of minutes and she felt no animosity toward her, only an invisible thread, binding them closer and closer as time ticked along. She had always belonged in her life, and now here she was.

"Restless little fella…" Elizabeth laughed through a rush of happy tears, as Maya wiped away a few of her own.

"He is that, yes." Right then, she was briefly taken out of the moment, remembering… "I should check on Mom… I'll be right back?"

"I'll be here," her grandmother promised. Maya breathed out, nodding. She could believe that.

As she'd made her way up the stairs, taking her time, she was left time to ponder, and the thing that came from these thoughts was an idea, and it felt as right as anything else she'd chosen to do today. She stopped for a moment at the top of the stairs, sending out a text before continuing on toward her parents' room. After giving a small rap at the door, she pushed it open to find her sisters curled up together on the bed, sleeping. MJ slept, too, in their mother's arms. She was very much awake, though her thoughts were as far away as the children's were.

"Mom…" Maya quietly spoke as she walked in. Katy looked at, closed her eyes.

"Are they gone?" she asked.

"_He_ is," Maya reported. "He didn't want to be here, and I didn't want him to be here either, so that all worked out for both of us. "She's still here though, on my invitation." Her mother looked at her. "I probably have… no idea here, not the same as you do, but I took one look at her and I knew… she didn't want what he wanted. She probably never did, but she never knew how to say it. I think she's figuring it out now."

"Maya…" her mother didn't look entirely convinced.

"Do you trust me?" Maya asked.

Katy sighed, brushing her fingers through MJ's hair as he slept against her chest. She had grown so much, lived so much, in the years since she'd been that eighteen-year-old expecting her first child, but in that moment, that young girl was rising from the depths, like she'd never left. Seeing Maya there, herself seven months along, maybe she'd found a way to put things into perspective again. Slowly, she'd moved to set MJ down next to the girls before rising out of bed. She followed Maya out of the room and back down the stairs and into the living room, where it appeared that Lucas was in the middle of telling Elizabeth Hart how he'd proposed to her granddaughter. When she looked over, in the middle of a laugh, and spotted Katy, she paused almost all at once.

"Morning, Mrs. Hart," Katy tipped her head in greeting. Elizabeth stood from the couch, approaching her son's ex-wife.

"I… I should have said no…" she spoke, in a tremulous voice, like her past self was reaching through, too, saying something it had wanted to say for over twenty years. "I should have been there, for you, for her," she looked to Maya, standing behind her mother. "For my son…"

"Yes, you should have," Katy told her, slowly nodding. She couldn't brush that off, and the way the woman nodded, _she_ wouldn't have wanted it brushed off either. "Are you hungry?" And that was Katy, shutting the door on the past and opening one into the future. Whatever happened from that point on was entirely dependent on Elizabeth.

They went into the kitchen now, sitting around the table, where Shawn brought over the leftover cake from Melinda Friar, from Friday's dinner. Tea was made for some, glasses of milk for others, and before they knew it, a conversation was underway, which stretched on and on, taking detours left and right into anything from old memories, to school, to talents… About an hour into it, the sound of small voices and steps on the stairs brought Nellie, Gracie, and MJ into the mix. They were introduced to Elizabeth and, upon learning that she was Maya's grandmother, somewhere in their young minds it was as good as someone telling them this was _their_ grandmother as well. They adopted her right then and there, and it made the older woman very happy to oblige.

It was somewhere about seven hours after Charles Hart had gone off in a huff when the sound of the doorbell brought a pause to the conversation in the kitchen. Had he returned?

"I'll go," Maya got up, to both her father and Lucas telling her they would go instead. "Hey, _hey_," she waved them off. "I'm just growing a human here," she told them before marching off toward the door. _She_ wasn't thinking it was her grandfather again, but then she also knew who it should have been.

When she opened the door and found her father and her aunt, stood there side by side, it struck her in a way she hadn't expected it would. She'd never seen them together, not in person at least. Her only awareness of the two of them existing in the same world came from videos from fifteen years ago and longer. But now they were here, a couple of nervous wrecks, one more than the other.

"Just so I don't murder someone today, to your knowledge, does your mother have a heart condition?" she whispered, looking from one to the other. Luna shook her head, while at her side Kermit looked upon his daughter, in all her pregnant glory. "Hey, glad you could make it," she smiled, as he moved in to embrace her.

Her text had been as brief as she could make it while also holding all the necessary information. _Your dad lost, he's off to pout in a corner. Your mom's here, she's lovely and sorry. Call your sister, how fast can the two of you get here?_ It would have been even better if everyone could have been here, Kermit and Luna, but also Abigail and her kids, and Ginny and Sadie, too, but already this… This was a long time coming, for all three estranged Harts.

As she'd walked them toward the kitchen, the first to see them coming was Lucas, who'd expectedly been trying to keep an eye on her. He saw the man and woman walking just behind her and his eyes went wide. After this, Shawn had seen them, and he'd had about the same reaction. Katy saw them, and she just barely reined in a gasp. Elizabeth was sitting there, oblivious to what was going on as she was listening to the twins. They were showing her one of their favorite story books, telling her how their father did voices and attempting to replicate them, to very adorably comical results. After a few seconds though, maybe noticing how silent the room had gotten, she'd looked up.

For a couple seconds, Maya thought she might actually have caused her grandmother to stop breathing. Any moment now, she would probably keel over in her chair and it would be a nightmare. Even when she moved to rise, it took a second for Maya to realize she was standing and not falling. She was up, and she was slowly making her way around the table. Maya stepped aside, and so did Luna. She hadn't seen her mother in over two years, true. But her mother and her brother hadn't seen one another in over twenty-one years. He'd been no more than a boy, eighteen years old, the last time they'd been in the same room. He was a grown man now, taller still than she remembered.

Elizabeth mumbled something as she came to stand before her son. Maya didn't catch the words, but her father must have. He gave a nod, and then he wrapped his arms around his mother, who held on to him like he could still have been as small as the boy he had once been. Maya turned to Lucas, who'd come to join her, and she couldn't even blame her tears on their sprout right then, because she probably would have cried anyway. But she _did_ have that sprout of a boy growing in her belly, her little son. And as she watched mother and son back together again, she felt it deep. She never wanted to feel what it was like to be separated from her child, not for even a single year, much less twenty more.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	29. On the Brain

_Chapter 29_  
_On the Brain_

If he had to put a word on it, Lucas would say that Maya had been sort of squirrelly on the whole drive back into Houston. It was Sunday, the last one where they'd be driving back to the house they shared with their friends. Seven days from now they would be about to spend their first night in their own house, officially living there. Between this and that, they had loads to do, the majority of that load having to do with finals, but he wasn't thinking about this right now. He was more concerned with whatever was on his fiancée's mind that had her like this.

When they arrived back, she went on upstairs, taking only her knitting bag from the car. That was fine, he would have carried that along with the rest; the thing that was making him watch her go was the fact that she'd stopped to take it at all. Lately, it had become what he could only call an escape, something to stop her mind from wandering places she didn't need it to go. What was it that she needed to work through tonight?

"Is she okay?" Riley asked when he came in with their bags.

"Physically, yeah. Whatever _that_ is, I don't really know yet," he admitted.

"Want me to go talk to her?" she asked.

"I… Would you?" With a nod, Riley was gone, dashing up the stairs. Off on the couch, Dylan, Sophie, and Chiara were looking back at him.

"Did something happen back there?" Chiara asked.

"Not that I know of," Lucas shook his head.

Things had actually been going so well, since last weekend, when she had met her grandmother, and her grandmother had been reunited with her son and daughter. Aside from the fact that they had now finished classes and were about to start their finals, they'd been hearing about developments in the Hart Family (Dis/Re)Connection, as Maya had been calling it. Elizabeth Hart was the core: she was being connected to her granddaughter, reconnected to her children… and disconnected from her husband.

After that wild day, one week ago, Kermit had taken his mother and his sister back to the hotel where his parents had taken up residence since flying in from Florida, which so happened to be the same one where he'd booked a room for himself and his little sister. Whether he had expected to see his father there or not, that choice had been taken away from him. Upon arriving at the hotel, they had been informed by a very uncomfortable desk clerk that Mr. Hart had checked out. His wife's bags had been brought to the desk after they'd been found left in the vacated room. It would have hurt more if they hadn't expected it out of him. Kermit and Luna had moved their mother into their room and that had been that.

The trio had remained in Austin until the following day, at which point Luna had gotten on a flight back to Tucson and her girls, while Kermit and Elizabeth had gotten on a flight to New York. She would be staying with her son, her daughter-in-law, and her grandchildren. At some point they would have to find a way to deal with her belongings, back in Florida, but as far as she was concerned, Elizabeth didn't care to see her husband again, and that was fine by everyone.

Maya had been conversing with her grandmother primarily via e-mail, allowing her to reply whenever she had the chance, between classes… It had been something that made her truly happy. Lucas could see it, and she said it herself. Beyond that, their final days of class had been as smooth going as either of them could hope. She was sad to leave her classmates, some of her professors, but on the whole she was eager to get to Austin, to have their baby… So he couldn't understand where this feeling was coming from all of a sudden.

"Hey, so we were talking over the weekend, while you guys were out there," Sophie stood up from the couch. "We wanted to maybe have a small thing here, us and some friends, just a sort of going away party for the two of you?" Lucas had to guess he was not meant to have been told this way, and it would have been a whole surprise sort of thing, but now tonight, with how Maya was doing, she'd preferred to let him in on it, in case he thought it wad a bad idea.

Was this what this was maybe? Had it just hit her suddenly that they were leaving, and she was having trouble coping? He could see that… He was working his last day at the bookstore on Saturday, the day before they moved. It could have seemed like he should have finished earlier, but he was the one who'd chosen it. They were really set to go already, Maya and him. Whatever they had left to do wouldn't be done until next Sunday morning, and after he'd had to cut back his hours to just Monday through Thursday evenings in order to work on the house… He wanted to have one last day there, with Rosa, with Pete, with Tracy…

"Let me see how she's doing first, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Sophie nodded, just as they heard Riley coming back down the stairs.

"Well?" Dylan asked her.

"I don't know," Riley shook her head. "She's just knitting, she seems okay, except it just sounds like she's saying 'I'm fine' when she's not. She won't tell me what it is."

Alright, so he'd have to give it a shot now. Leaving the four of them down here, Lucas made his way up to his and Maya's room. Walking in, as he shut the door behind himself, he saw exactly what Riley had been saying. Maya was sitting up on their bed, knitting needles clicking away. Trix and Lou were on the bed with her, having made their way up behind her from the landing when she'd passed. Lou was curled up at her side, looking at the bag of yarn sitting nearby like she had half a mind to jump in. Trix sat over Maya's legs, lightly prodding her nose at her belly, setting her head to it… Maya paused in her knitting, scratching the dog's head with a smile, before looking over at him.

"Hey…" she told him, in that same sort of serene tone. He could hear it though, just as Riley did. The cheerfulness that didn't sound entirely genuine. There was something else.

Lucas walked over to the bed, sat on the edge. Trix lifted her head to look at him, almost warning him away, keeping eye contact as she set her head back protectively over the bump. Maya was back to her knitting.

"What are you working on this time?" he asked.

"A hat," she informed him. "Which I realize might not be a very requested item right now…" The month of May had started to really feel as though it had broken out the trumpets, announcing the approach of summer. It was hotter every day lately.

"Who's this one for?" Lucas wondered. She'd done a few of these before; she was getting very good at knitting, to no one's surprise.

"Nellie… or Gracie… Got the first one done, see?" she reached into her bag, pulling out a small pink and yellow hat. The one she was working on now was identical.

"Looks great," he smiled, especially as she moved to set the small thing on his head. "I don't know if it's in my colors."

"You haven't met a hat that hasn't looked good on you," she insisted, getting back to work. Lucas pulled the hat from his head, running his fingers over the stitches.

"Hey," he nudged her leg with his knee. He didn't have to say anything, she'd know he was changing the subject just as much as she'd know what this new subject would be. He could see it in the way her face shifted. She was trying harder to look okay, and it wasn't working. "Maya…" he tapped her leg with his hand now.

"Not now, okay?" she slowly asked him. He kept looking at her, and finally she looked back at him. "I really need to sleep through the night, and if I start…" she shook her head.

"Okay," he told her, nodding in such a way that she'd know he meant it. If she didn't want to talk about what was going through her mind, then he wasn't going to force her. She breathed out, nodding. When she turned her head to their desks for a beat, he had a feeling she'd just told him without telling him. _Finals._ That was all it was, or at least it was nothing about the baby, or the move. All of them were stressed about finals, sure, that was normal. But then he guessed between being all of a handful of weeks away from giving birth, everything that was happening to her body, everything coursing through her brain… It might have been the most intense finals stress she might have had to deal with.

And to make it worse, she couldn't put her mind at ease by having herself a solid review session, burning that midnight oil, not when she needed that oil to ensure that she carried their son healthily along. So, she needed her sleep… except her mind was having other ideas about that right now.

"Mind if I put on a movie?" he asked, standing to grab his laptop. She looked at him, frowning uncertainly. "Nothing too loud or anything, I swear."

"Sure, alright," she finally told him.

Bringing the laptop over, he sat on his side of the bed and started the movie once he'd selected one. Before long, he could see her peering over at the screen, her needles stalling for seconds at a time, then a minute, then a few minutes. After an hour, the knitting had been altogether abandoned and she had set her head in the crook of his shoulder. By the time credits rolled, she was sound asleep, lying against him.

Lucas closed the laptop, although now that he looked around at the bed, with the knitting things, and the dogs, and Maya on his shoulder… He pulled out his phone and sent off a text to Dylan. Soon after, he came sneaking into the room. Already with his instructions, he saw to the knitting. Riley followed in a moment later. She picked up Lou, who gave no resistance or noise, and carried her away. Dylan did the same with Trix before giving Lucas a look to say he'd be back. Eventually, they'd settled Maya in. By now, she couldn't even handle the blankets, she'd get too hot, so those would be folded at the foot of the bed.

"Thanks," Lucas whispered to Dylan when they were done. He smiled and nodded. "Hey… Go for the party," Lucas added before he could go. Dylan raised his hands happily and that was that.

The next morning, Lucas woke up to find Maya was already awake, sitting over at her desk with her notes and her books, putting in a bit of reviewing for the day's final. She had one today, while he had two, which had somewhat cut into his time working back at the house. Every so often he would stop what he was doing in order to sit with some of his materials. At other times, Maya had gone about quizzing him. He didn't want her hanging around too close to what they'd been doing, for fear of her tripping over something or generally getting hurt by anything, but then she'd come up with a solution soon enough.

With earbuds in his ears and his phone in his back pocket, he would have her on the line, asking questions from the comfort of the porch downstairs. His father would laugh whenever he'd be standing there, very quietly working away, then all of a sudden spouting off some fact or another.

"Morning," he yawned, sitting up and rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Morning," she replied, and he was relieved to find she sounded a bit more genuinely upbeat, compared to the night before. "You know, I totally figured out what you were doing with that movie thing," she went on to tell him, which he took as her way of saying thanks. He smiled.

"Busted," he nodded, standing up and moving over to the desk. She turned her chair around and he leaned over to kiss her. "How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"A lot better than I thought I could at this point. Although, by the time I finally woke up, like an hour ago, I swear I didn't think I'd make it all the way to the bathroom." He chuckled, which got him a squint out of her.

"The important part is that you made it," he saved himself from that look.

"Yeah…" she replied. 'Sure.' She was turning back to her notes already, and that little anxious bug was digging its teeth back in.

"Breakfast?" Lucas asked. Maya looked up at him. He nodded out the door.

"Yeah, okay," she stood, taking her notes. She was inching her way toward thirty-five weeks at this point, and by now she could hardly make any sort of move or sound that gave the impression of shock, pain, or uncertainty without someone assuming that she was going into labor. She'd told him, on the drive into Austin the previous Friday evening, that she was this close to getting herself a shirt made with _I will tell you if I'm in labor, until then back off._

"And then under that 'no belly rubs?'" he'd suggested, which made her laugh.

"We could make a fortune."

It used to be she had to get much closer to him in order to 'bump bump' him, but now she didn't even have to try that much and he'd feel it. He felt it now, and he smiled, looking down at her, giving the top of her belly a small scratch with his index finger. She laughed.

"Tickles?" he asked.

"Please. It takes more than that," she shrugged. "And that is not a challenge."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he assured her, while she gave him a couple of purposeful, light bumps. "Okay, now that's asking for it."

"Ha," she looked back up at him. For a few seconds, they just quietly stared back at one another.

"Anything you'd like to get off your chest before we head down there?" Lucas asked. Maya hesitated. She _had _told him they'd talk about it later.

"It was silly, okay?" she shrugged. "We were in the car, and I kept rolling through everything I had to do this week, all my finals… last ones I'll take until who knows how long, with the baby coming, and staying with him. It's not even anything new, really. I've been getting stuck in that loop more and more as the weeks go by. Yesterday, I just kept thinking how I wanted to do well, better than well, because those results were going to have to get me back into school once it's time for me to go back. But then when is that going to be, when am I going to be… okay… to leave him behind… How do I even…"

She _had_ expressed this to him before, and he did get it. He could never have that same bond with their son as she would have, he knew that, but he could still see why it would all be making her feel just suddenly overwhelmed. There really was nothing he could do to make that feeling go away. The only things he could do… he was already doing them, so he'd keep on doing them.

"It's not silly," he promised. "I'm never going to think it's silly, not if it really bothers you. You only ever hold back like that when it does."

"Yeah…" Maya agreed, breathing out, as they finally made their way out of their room to join the others at breakfast. "Hey, so, got any other movies to watch tonight?" she asked as they started down the stairs. He smiled.

"Might have a few. Could take all week."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	30. Finals and Boxes and Last Days

_Chapter 30_  
_Finals and Boxes and Last Days_

_Monday_

It would always be the case that, as nervous as they'd all be going into finals, once they had gotten through one things would get to feel just a bit easier. They weren't suddenly worry free, but it would be progress, and they could work with that.

Maya had just the one final today, while Lucas had two. When she was done with hers, she'd gone over to Professor Robinson's office and settled on to the couch. It had become a habit of hers, as the weeks had gone by and she and the baby had been getting bigger. If not for her being in school, she would have been at home by now, taking it easy until the day came where she went into labor, and now with just a few days to go before _that _happened, all she had to do was hold on a while longer. The professor's couch was her place to sit and relax, if for a little while. She wasn't out of the woods yet.

Before she could convince herself to grab her bag and start reviewing for tomorrow's final, she reached for her phone and called back to Austin to check on her mother. It had been about five weeks since that day in the doctor's office, and so far everything was still going well, but Maya couldn't help wanting to make sure anyway.

"Hey, baby girl, how was it this morning?" Katy asked after she'd picked up.

"First half went by without a hitch," Maya told her. "Then I got stuck on one question and my mind started to wander. I thought about what might happen if I just up and went into labor right there in the middle of taking my test. What would they do with _that_?" Her mother laughed.

"But you didn't," she reminded her.

"Well, no, but I've still got like five more of these, that's five more chances of it happening. You know, final exams, not the most relaxed of times."

"You are my smart, beautiful daughter," Katy declared. "You will get through this week and show them what's what."

"Are you trying to make me cry right now, you know I start easy," Maya smiled.

"You think that's bad, I can do you one better," Katy chuckled. There was silence as seconds went by. Maya was about to ask where she'd gone when she heard a chime from her phone. "Use your computer to open that?"

"Uh, okay, hold on," Maya told her, trying not to look like she was pouting at the thought of getting up off the couch, even if her mother couldn't see her. She walked to her desk. _Walked… Waddled, more like._ "E-mail… e-mail…" she mumbled to herself as she opened her laptop and went to find the new message, which contained an attachment, a video.

"Sound on," her mother added, just as she had the mouse hovering over the video file. Maya's finger paused for a moment. She knew what would be in there now, and it made her nervous and excited all at once. Finally, she clicked, and the video screen popped up while she was pushing for the volume to go up. In what felt like a repeat of months ago, the rapid little drum of a fetal heartbeat flooded her ears. It wasn't her own baby's heart this time around. On the screen, she could see the image captured along with this sound, of her new baby brother or sister.

"Okay, that's not fair," Maya reached for one and then two tissues from her desk, eyes blurring with tears at the sight of that little human. Much as she knew that any number of things could still go wrong for her mother and this baby, she had been going on the side of cautious optimism for all these weeks. And this? This tiny shadow of a person with a strong, beating heart… That was someone who was fighting to live, and she believed in them. "I kind of needed that today," she admitted.

"Happy to help," her mother told her, sounding like she was crying, too. "Shawn says he doesn't want to know if it's a boy or a girl when the time comes, doesn't even want to make any wagers on it. He just wants a healthy baby in his arms when this is all over, and I'm with him on that."

"That makes three of us," Maya nodded.

When Lucas would walk out of his second final of the day, he would look up and spot a familiar figure waiting for him on a nearby bench, reading through her notes. The moment he came to sit next to her, she reached at her other side and produced a paper bag containing a donut.

"Read my mind," he hummed, digging in at once. As he ate, she casually reached into her bag, pulling out her earbuds, connecting them, and reaching out to put them carefully in his ears. He just let her do it, gladly. As he went on eating, she held up her phone and a video started. The sound that played in his ears was a familiar one, though he would swear he could tell just from hearing it that this wasn't their son's heartbeat. With the video, he soon guessed who it belonged to.

"I kind of want to put _that_ in my ears tonight," she told him.

"I had a movie picked out and everything," he 'complained,' making her laugh. "Still feels like that day just happened," he shook his head, looking at the video.

"Yeah, a lot of things do," she pointed out, running a hand over her belly.

"Home or library?" he asked, before she could sink into those thoughts that threatened to keep her up the night before. He held out the bag to her, offering a bit or all of what remained of his donut. She declined, assuring him she'd already had her treat.

"Home, please."

X

_Tuesday_

"The woman just kept hovering by my desk the whole time, like she wanted to be _right_ there in case I was going to go and start to have the baby," Maya recounted to Lucas as the two of them were driving home that afternoon.

They'd each only had one final today, both just after lunch, which had allowed them a fairly easy morning, waking up on their own time, starting their review just after breakfast, until the time had come to head to the university. There, they'd shared their lunch before splitting off to take their respective tests. This time around Lucas was the one to finish first, so he was there outside the class when Maya emerged, giving him the same sort of 'yes, one more down!' smile.

"Well, that's… nice?" Lucas asked.

"Oh, at heart, sure, but how would you feel if the whole time you were taking your test, all you could see in your periphery is the same swishing skirt walking the same six feet the whole time?"

"Okay… yeah…" he tried not to laugh, because it _did_ sound kind of bad.

"I swear, by the end of that test, I could draw the pattern on it with my eyes closed. Because it's imprinted on the back of my eyelids," she pointed to her face. "If they didn't all know I was pregnant in that room, it would have looked like she thought I was cheating and she had to keep an eye on me."

"Think any of the others _did_ cheat while she was busy with you?" Lucas suggested. She groaned.

"You know what, probably."

"Hey… One more down," he reminded her.

"You're already halfway through yours, how did that happen?" she sighed.

"I have all the rest of mine on Friday, it's a _good_ thing I have two days free to prepare." That meant the next time they drove back home on a day when he had finals, too… they would be done. And they'd be moving back to Austin two days later.

Before she could let her mind go to the sad place, Maya was brought back to reality by the sound of her phone ringing with a Skype call. She looked at the screen and saw it was Brianna.

"Hey," she answered, finding the girl sitting – she guessed – in her bedroom, at her desk.

"Hey, I'm not bothering you, am I?" Brianna asked. She always did, and Maya wished she could get to the point where she'd understand that she was her friend, and she was not a bother.

"You're not," she still assured her. "We're just driving home from university. Say hi, Lucas."

"Hi, Brianna," he called out.

"Hey, Lucas," Brianna replied.

"So, what's up?" Maya asked her. Brianna turned her head to look somewhere off screen, motioning for someone to come forward. A moment later, a boy came into view, crouching until his face could be seen. Just by the way they behaved, being near one another, Maya could guess who this was. Jay, the boyfriend and potential baby daddy number two. "Hey, I'm Maya," she introduced herself.

"Sanjay Khatri," he tipped his head with a shy smile. Maya wasn't sure how to telegraph to Brianna 'did you tell him yet?' so she'd know what she could or couldn't say. Last she'd heard from her young new friend, she was still not 'out' at her school for being pregnant, and more importantly she wasn't out with either of the boys who could be the father of her unborn child. If she was calling her now though, she had to hope it meant something had changed on that front, but she had to make sure anyway.

"He knows," Brianna thankfully caught on. "I told him… everything." Maya breathed out, at once relieved but also left to wonder…

"Are you okay?" she asked them both, though a bit more to Jay, who was just now finding out he may or may not have gotten Brianna pregnant.

"I'm getting used to knowing, I guess," the boy told her, sounding very much his age at this point. Maya and Lucas were lucky enough that, even though by many people's standards they were still kind of young to be having their first child, twenty-one and twenty-two, it was nothing compared to Brianna and Jay, who were both sixteen and still in high school. At the same time, even if he looked just a bit scared, reasonably so, Maya could see something like resolve in him.

"And what about the other guy?" she asked. There was no point being coy about it.

"Told him, too," Brianna confirmed, stealing a look to Jay as she did. She looked entirely more uncomfortable over this than he ever did. It wasn't as though she'd cheated on him. She'd gotten together with this first guy, her first time and their only time, and shortly thereafter Jay had gotten up the courage to confess his feelings to best friend Brianna. They'd gone on a date, and one thing had led to another… Afterward, they'd decided maybe it had been rushing into things, and they would 'do things properly' for a while. Except then a few weeks later Brianna had found out she was pregnant, and now here they were.

"How'd _that_ go?" Maya had to ask. Brianna had never spoken too much about him, which left her to fear if he might have been more the kind of Cameron Ellis' father, who'd told Ainsley to 'take care of it.'

"He doesn't want people knowing he might be the father," Brianna replied. "But he swears that, if it _is_ his baby, he'll be involved." She said this in such a way that suggested she was confident this was the truth. For her sake, if it turned out this was her baby's father, Maya hoped it was true. Her gaze moved back to the other boy in this equation though. Jay. The boyfriend. She wouldn't ask, but going by the way he looked at her, she would wager that, whoever was this baby's biological father, if he and Brianna stayed together then that baby would have _him_ as a father, too.

"Does that mean you've decided what you're going to do?" That much she had to ask. The whole time she'd known her, Brianna had stated that she didn't know if she would keep this baby, whether that meant giving it away or not having it at all or…

"I… We… We're going to keep it," Brianna told her, looking to Jay, who nodded back at her with a smile.

X

_Wednesday_

Maya had two finals today, one in the morning, and the other shortly after lunch time. She had gotten through that first one by now, and she was back in Professor Robinson's office to review for the second one, though her head was still caught up in the frustration of her morning's 'adventures,' which made it hard to concentrate on what she was supposed to be reading.

"Damn it…" she groaned, sitting back and taking a deep breath after she realized she'd been rereading the same paragraph for a while now.

Being at school all through her pregnancy hadn't come without the occasional problem, much as the majority of her professors had been very understanding. She hadn't gone to the trouble of telling any of them in the very beginning, as they were well into the fall semester by then and no one would even notice unless she said something. Seeing as they were still looking to keep things quiet at this point, that almost went without saying.

Then, after they'd come back from break, in January, and she'd been dressing to let her little belly be noticeable, there'd been the parade of going from professor to professor and 'revealing' what they could all see with their own two eyes. She had always done her best to schedule doctor's appointments where she didn't have class, but there had been times where she didn't have a choice to either be late or leave early or not show up at all. She had never missed an assignment, and her work had not suffered, and so on that front there'd been no reproach whatsoever.

The man who watched over this morning's exam did not know her, nor had he been around pregnant women all that much, by the looks of things. Naturally, this was the time her sprout of a child had decided to put on a show, and he'd gone straight for the bladder… a few times. When she'd had to excuse herself the first time, just a few minutes into the allotted time, he'd given her a disapproving 'you should have gone before' look and let her go. When she'd had to go a second time, it didn't get any better. By the third time, she genuinely tried to hold it in, or to tell herself it was gonna be one of those times where she didn't need to go after all, but there was nothing to do for it, so she'd had to get up again. The supervisor had made his assistant follow her.

After three interruptions, she was already starting to feel like she was losing grasp of what she needed to put down for her actual exam, and she was worried that she'd run out of time. She was nearly done, and so was their time, and she could feel the urge rising again, but all she'd had to do was to look up and see the supervisor look back at her and she knew if she went up there he would make a fuss. He'd either refuse outright, wasting what little time she had left, or he'd take her test away and wouldn't give it back. So, she'd mustered up every ounce of concentration she had left in her, and she'd finished the test. The moment she'd been done, she'd gotten up, feeling like she had a ticking clock over her head, and now the numbers were flashing red. She'd moved up to the desk, her willpower now concentrated on restraint, and she'd dropped the booklet in front of the man, keeping his gaze the whole time. Then she was out of there as fast as she could manage.

She was so mad, and more than that, now she was concerned about what would happen if she got another one of those in another of her finals. That wasn't how she wanted her time at this university to end, and if it affected her performance…

There was a knock at the office door, and she startled, turning toward the sound. The professor wasn't here, was one of her students looking for her?

"Delivery!" a voice announced from the other side, and she smiled.

"It's open!" she called back, and Lucas walked in, carrying a bag and a tray. Even across the room, she recognized the overall scent: fare from the Nook. "Oh, I love you, let me have your baby…" she hummed dramatically. "Right, already doing that," she smiled as he shut the door and came over to the couch, leaning forward to kiss her.

"Lunch break?"

"So much," she nodded, setting her notes aside and rising to join him at her desk. He set out the pair of containers, utensils and all, and then they sat together and started to eat. For a little while, she could forget about her crappy morning and just enjoy good food with the one she loved. Her life was slowly turning into a non-stop attack of 'look at all the things you're doing for the last time,' and this was probably going to be one of if not the last time she would have breakfast from the Nook in a long time… She wouldn't let it add to her mountain of woes.

"How was it this morning?" Lucas asked, and she was glad for the bite she was currently chewing, as it provided her with cause to take her time and sound truthful when she said…

"Fine, good," she nodded casually. "Some parts were giving me trouble, but I got through."

"That's great," Lucas smiled, which made _her_ smile. He would look at her so often with this underlying expression on his face, like he was always so proud of her. When he was actually, actively encouraging her, the whole effect was as powerful as could be. She'd look at that face, telling her that he believed she could do anything, and she'd be taken with this feeling that… yeah… she _could_ do anything. "Want me to quiz you for the next one?"

"Yeah," she chuckled. "Go for it."

X

_Thursday_

Lucas woke up this morning, and in the quiet of that May morning, his mind started to pile up with a few facts. One: this was day two of his hyper review for the next day's triple finals day (or as Maya would insist on calling it, his final finals final day). Two: this was the last slow day he'd spend in Houston, with finals the next day, work the day after that, and the move back to Austin the day after _that_. Three: he was twenty-two years old, today.

He had insisted on there not being a fuss made over it, as he'd done the previous year. His birthday always landed in the middle of finals week, and everyone – including himself – needed to focus. This year, he suspected, they would be bending around that rule, the following evening, for instance, when they were throwing their going away party for him. Maya wasn't aware of this party's existence, of course, so though she still slept now, he knew it was only a matter of time before she did… something festive.

"Hey, kiddo," he whispered, taking this time for some one-on-one time with the sprout. He set his hand lightly to her belly, closing his eyes like he could just see that little boy in there… their son… Waiting these last few weeks to meet him was really just getting to make him feel like a little kid, waiting for Christmas, when the best, greatest present he could have ever asked for was just there, wrapped up in a box that couldn't be opened yet… "We're almost home, the three of us," he told him. "Three more sleeps."

"That's a lot of threes," a sleepy voice told him. He turned his eyes up to find Maya was staring back at him with a smile.

"Lucky number," he declared, moving up to kiss her, even as his hand stayed where he'd set it. "Morning."

"Happy birthday," she replied, reaching to hold his face in her hand. "I was going to do so much this morning, you know?" He nodded. Of course, he knew. As they'd grown closer to one another, in the years they had known one another and especially in the years they had been a couple, it was a certainty in his life that when his birthday rolled around, Maya would go and make sure his day was memorable. This usually involved a fair number of things which would be extremely difficult if not impossible to achieve in her current state. He didn't mind it, he never would, not when _this_ was the reason, but he knew Maya would definitely mind. She wanted to do what she always did, but now she couldn't.

"What if next year you just sort of… doubled up?" he offered.

"What, like this?" she held her hand several inches above her belly, making him laugh. "But yeah… I guess that might work," she brought her hand back down, laying it on top of his. Bringing up the next year's birthday meant conjuring up an image in which their son was nearly a year old already, which was astounding to consider.

For now, all they could do was get out of bed and get on with their day, which would involve a lot of studying for the both of them. No tests for either of them today, but then tomorrow she'd have her last two, and he'd have his last three… They had debated going to the library, like some kind of last hurray for their soon to be former university, but then Maya didn't do so well with the library these days, so instead they decided to stay here, where they could be dressed as comfortably as they wanted, sit wherever they wanted, could talk, and eat, and drink, and put on music if they so chose. It was his birthday, and he decided to make it his birthday wish. Maya was all too happy to grant it.

X

_Friday_

They woke up even as the sun was starting to show itself. This was it, one last day at the university and it would be over. They'd only have one more full day to spend here, in Houston, before they packed up the rest of their belongings – by now fitting in Lucas' car and Hank's truck, which would follow them into Austin. They didn't have time to think about it though, not now. Right now, it was finals upon finals, and neither of them would have time to think about much anything else until the end of the day.

With Lucas' first test starting at eight, he and Maya had not wasted any time in getting ready and leaving the house, setting any thoughts aside of nostalgia and bittersweet moments. As her own first test wasn't until nine, Maya had accompanied Lucas up to where his first test would take place, leaving him a three good luck kisses, one for each of those finals he'd be sitting that day, as in all likelihood their schedules would not permit them to meet again until the end of the day. That was alright though. That meant that the next time they did see each other this day would be good and done.

When Maya stepped out of her first test, she looked to her phone and discovered messages waiting.

_Lucas: One down! I think it went well._

This was accompanied by a picture of him giving his best impression of her celebratory expression. She chuckled, with half a mind to show him how it was really done. The next message, by the time stamp, had been sent all of a minute ago.

_Lucas: Heading into number two soon, let me know how it went this morning? I'll see it on my way to the last one. 366_

She'd known they would miss each other this way, but it still made her sigh as she typed out her reply.

_Maya: First one went well. Baby slept through it I think, I think he absorbed my boredom with this class. Off to grab lunch now. You ate, right?_

Lunch was bought and taken back to Professor Robinson's office where she would spend the next near on two hours buckling down for her final final, which so happened to be for the woman in question's class. It felt borderline inappropriate for her to be there, so close to this test, but no doubts were going to keep her from taking a breather on that couch… one last time.

"I had a feeling I'd be seeing you," the professor declared, as Maya opened the door to the office and found the woman sitting at her desk. "I came prepared," she indicated her own lunch already waiting.

"It's okay, right?" Maya smiled, shutting the door and moving up to join her.

"Of course! Please, have a seat," Patty Robinson stood and moved around so she might sit on one of the receiving chairs along with her student, rather than to hold her position across the desk. "My goodness, I still find myself almost surprised when I see you," she laughed lightly, indicating the great bump of thirty-five weeks' growth.

"Do you know, I don't usually have that problem myself," Maya joked. "It kind of follows me around…"

"Oh, not for much longer now," the woman beamed, though just as soon pulling it back, noting that flicker in the mom-to-be's face. "But after that, it'll be even better," she course-corrected, and Maya nodded.

"It will be," she agreed. "I'm sorry, my head just likes to go places these days, whether I want it to or not."

"That tends to be the case, yes. Well, now, let's dig in, I am all ears on any subject you might wish to discuss."

"Except this final of yours," Maya guessed.

"Yes, that would be the exception," Patty chuckled.

Lucas had made it through his second final in a very satisfactory time, which was what he had hoped for as much as what he had expected. This had been one of his easier classes, not because the subject matter was overly simple but because he understood it very well and thrived in it. It afforded him one last push for review, for his last test. He had been studying so hard the past two days, and he didn't see himself being able to take in much more than he already had, but then with only one subject left to focus on, the path _was_ just a bit more open.

Once his last test – his final final – had started, he was focused on that alone, even as he thought about how close he was to everything falling into place. He'd go and find Maya – or more likely she'd be outside the room waiting for him, as she'd be done before him – and they would go home. There'd be the party with their friends, and it would be good times for all. Tomorrow, he'd be working at Coleman's one last time. And Sunday they would leave Houston and move into their house in Austin. If he'd ever needed anything to motivate him, he had more than enough here.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	31. Before We Say Goodbye

_Chapter 31_  
_Before We Say Goodbye_

As they walked along through the halls, headed to the parking lot exit, hand in hand… Lucas could feel Maya walked slowly, but he didn't fear this having anything to do with her feeling weak or troubled. This was the last time they would walk through this place as students. She wanted to enjoy the moment, didn't want to just leave, and he was right there with her. They might not have gotten to do the full four years here, only two, but they had been two great years, even if the majority of one of them had been spent in 'prego land.' If not for their circumstances, they would have wanted nothing more than to still be here, to come back in the fall for their third year, to stay with their roommates, still living in Houston.

"Ready to go?" Lucas asked as the exit loomed ahead of them. Maya sighed, looking at him and giving the impression that she didn't want to let herself look back. If she looked, she might let her emotions get the best of her.

"Yeah, we better get going," she finally nodded.

"You sure?"

"I'm very sure. If we stay here much longer, I'll have to go to the bathroom and then it's just going to be a whole thing…" she explained. Lucas smiled now. She was messing with him, sort of. Either way, she was good to go, so they walked out and started for the car. They'd just gone through the door when he heard her give a low groan.

"What's up?" Lucas asked, his way of asking if she was okay without using the undesired 'are you okay' words.

"I've been in that building for almost half a day, with the AC. Took one step out the door and I just… this heat is just crushing me," she explained. The groan was repeated.

"Want me to bring the car closer?" he asked with a sympathetic smile.

"No, it's okay, I'll make it," Maya breathed. "Let's just… go," she gestured to the car off in the distance. "Tell me the truth, is it really _that_ hot, or is it just me and… all this?" her arm swept back in to indicate her belly.

"Oh, it's hot," he promised. She looked up at him, giving him a squinty sort of 'be real with me' look. "I mean… I'm comfortable," he admitted, "But I've always been that way." That much she couldn't fault him. He was usually the one to go 'what, it's not so bad' whenever any of them would complain that it was too hot or cold. It annoyed some of them to no end, and he had been doing his best not to say anything like that, not to her, when he knew she was experiencing the absolute opposite right now.

They carried on toward the car. When they arrived, Lucas hurried to get the door open, start the car, and then start the AC. It had been cooking out here all day, and if Maya thought it was bad outside, this would be worse by a mile.

"Maya!" a voice called out as they were standing there, waiting to get into the car. They turned to find Professor Robinson was making her way across the lot, as fast as her legs would carry her. "I was hoping I hadn't missed you," she breathed as she reached them.

"You alright?" Maya asked, offering her hand for support in case she needed it. The professor may have been spry for her age, but there were limits.

"One of these days, I'm going to start spending my summers in cooler climates," she huffed, making her student – former student – and her fiancé chuckle. "I was so focused on everything else earlier, I forgot to give you this," the professor held up a large gift bag, smiling.

"Professor, I…" Maya started to say, but the woman shook her head.

"Not anymore," she reminded her, which only Maya feel a sudden rattling of emotions. "And I won't have any 'you didn't have to do that' or anything like that. Think of it as a going away sort of thing. Only seems a fair trade, when I'm losing what might have been one of my better TAs." Now _that_ caught Maya so off guard that there was no stalling those tears, and heat or no, when Patty Robinson pulled her into an embrace, she didn't resist.

"You, uh… Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?" Maya asked when they pulled back.

"It would be my pleasure," Patty declared. "I have a few things left to do here, but I will meet you there, say around six thirty?"

"Perfect," Maya nodded. "And thank you," she held up the bag, which had somehow found its way into her hand. After they'd watched the professor start back toward the building, they finally got into the car, which had cooled down considerably in the time they'd been standing outside, talking. Maya breathed in the cool air, attempting to wave some of it up to her face at the same time.

While she was enjoying the effect of the AC for a bit, Lucas managed to end off a quick text to Riley, back at the house, informing her they would have one more guest. He hadn't said anything when Maya had invited the professor; he couldn't. Beyond the fact that it would have felt in poor taste to say 'you can't come to dinner because our friends are throwing a surprise going away party,' he knew that Maya would want Patty Robinson to be there, just like Patty Robinson would love a party as much as a sit down dinner, even if the vast majority of the guest list consisted of college students.

"You okay there?" he asked Maya as they took off from the university. She turned her head to him. "Just about the professor and what she gave you, and what she said…"

"About being a TA?" Maya asked, and he nodded. "It's not like I wanted it, or… I should say it's not like I thought about it a lot this year, with us getting ready to leave and all. I did sort of start to wonder about it though, near the end," she admitted. "And now that I know, I just…" It only drove home the point that they were going away, and that everything she'd worked toward over the past two years would now have to be put on pause, for who knew how long, and by the time she would start going to school again she would have very little of the advancement she'd made since she'd started college to back her up. It would be a terrifying concept to anyone, baby or no baby. "At least I know that… I would have been…" she told him, looking down at herself with an inward thought to their boy. She didn't want him to absorb any kind of feeling like she would ever want any of that more than she'd want him. He may have been a baby, not even born at that, but that didn't change how she felt about wanting to protect him.

Lucas wasn't sure what to anticipate for this party and how Maya would react to the surprise. As he'd been sitting in wait of his third and last test starting earlier, he'd been taken with this image of the two of them walking through the door, their guests springing the surprise, and then Maya just going right into labor. He'd had to tell himself, over and over, that she would in all likelihood suspect that _something_ would be happening, either tonight or tomorrow, and so she would be able to brace herself. He still felt the urge to tell her, but he resisted as best he could.

They got to the house, and Maya held up her hand in a signal he took to mean she wanted another few seconds of the air before they opened the car doors and let the heat touch her again. It would only be for the space of the time it would take her to get out of the car and walk to the house, where she would be kept cool once again, but it was still one of the most unpleasant feelings she had to deal with at the moment, so he wasn't about to argue.

"Okay, let's go," she finally sighed, opening the door and groaning a moment later.

Lucas grabbed the gift bag and joined Maya as they walked up to the house. They were about two steps from the door when she turned to briefly look at him, and right there he knew she had indeed figured them out and she'd just now looked at him for some confirmation. No shock, no sudden water breakage. They reached the door, and it was opened for them before any key could be pulled out. Riley greeted them with a great smile, stepping aside to reveal the group spread out across the living room, and now spilling out of the kitchen.

As prepared as she may have been, as far as the actual surprise was concerned, Maya wasn't prepared for all of it. Sure, she knew there was a party, and she knew that a lot of their friends would be there. But to see them now, all of them, knowing they'd come for her and for Lucas as they prepared to leave Houston, the emotions were not long in getting the best of her. All their friends, everyone who'd come into their lives over the past two years and made any sort of impression, they were here. Friends, classmates, co-workers, and from the day Hank Hillard had come into their lives, family, too. He was there, along with his wife and their children. The rest of the families, his parents and hers, would still be in Austin, they imagined, waiting to have their own sort of party, welcoming their son and daughter back among them.

"When did you figure it out?" Lucas asked Maya, when they'd both gone upstairs to freshen up a bit for the party, after a day full of finals.

"Please, I would have known even if everyone wasn't so obvious about it with the sneaking around and the whispering," Maya chuckled. "There was no 'figuring it out,' I just figured they're all great friends, we're going away… Of course they were going to throw a party. And we _did_ miss the chance to celebrate your birthday," she reminded him with a smile. He laughed.

"Alright, that's fair," he told her as she went toward the closet, nodding and carefully reaching to pull her t-shirt over her head. Before she could, she groaned. "Hey?"

"Just my back," she told him. "Can you just…" she pointed to where it hurt and he came forward to rub at the spot in question. "It's those damned chairs in class, you know?"

"You won't have to deal with those anymore," he smiled, moving his hand to where she now told him to go.

"Yeah, all done with that for a while now…" she breathed, bowing her head, hands joined under her belly as she'd do, like she was holding their sprout.

"Only for now," he reminded.

"Yeah…"

She didn't have to say a thing for him to know that whole part of her future still left her wondering. How could it not? It was easy for both of them to say she would stay with the baby for some time, after which she'd go back to school, a new school, and carry on to finish her degree, but they didn't really know, did they? What if by the time she got to that part she _didn't_ go back, for one reason or another, good or bad? Sure, she was ready for whatever change or sacrifice she had to make, but for now it was all hidden in the unknown, and that was the thing that caused them trouble, caused _her_ to have that question rolling through her head more often than she'd care to admit.

"How's your back?" Lucas asked.

"As good as it's going to get for now," Maya declared, looking over at him. "Thank you," she told him. He leaned in for one slow kiss.

"We're going to have a good time tonight, yeah?"

"I'm counting on it," she nodded. "No pressure." He laughed.

They'd returned downstairs a few minutes later. They were still making the rounds, chatting with everyone, by the time Patty Robinson arrived for what she'd assumed to be a simple dinner and discovered to be a going away/birthday party.

"Well, now I feel underprepared," she told Maya and Lucas with an amused laugh when she found them. "And I know _your_ birthday is in January," she looked to Maya before turning to Lucas. "So, that would make you the birthday boy, wouldn't it?"

"Yesterday," Lucas nodded.

"Happy belated birthday then," she hugged him without ceremony, leaving him momentarily surprised while Maya just hid her smile beneath her hand.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"I know your mama raised you well, but you will leave the 'ma'am' and call me Patty, won't you?"

"Pretty sure he'll short-circuit if he tries that," Maya joked. Lucas could barely muster fake reproach over that, so he just laughed and gave her his best sort of robot impression, mechanically reaching to tip an invisible cowboy hat.

Even though all the guests had been told they didn't need to bring gifts, it had soon been discovered that every last one of them – even the roommates who'd instigated that rule – had brought something. The coffee table was stacked with wrapped boxes and gift bags, some of them for both Maya and Lucas and others just for Lucas, for his birthday. All this meant was that they'd have even more to pack up for the move, but neither one of them could really refuse, and neither of them wanted to. They were deeply touched, and as always deeply thankful to everyone who'd come and brought them something.

"If they did all this for us, I can't even imagine what it'll be like when it's your baby shower," Lucas told Maya, later that night, as they settled into bed.

"Well, they're going to have to get up very, _very_ early to outdo your mother, I'm guessing," Maya laughed. On that, she definitely had a point. He wouldn't have been surprised if she already had the guest room stacked with baby things, just waiting to give them to Maya and him.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" he asked her, turning off the light and lying down on his side, facing her.

"I don't have a job anymore, I don't go to school anymore, and our baby is still on the inside part of his journey," she tapped her fingers to her belly. "That means nothing is expected of me from anyone right now, and I am going to take that time… so much… I'm going to sit downstairs, on the couch, I'm going to watch some television, catch up on my shows…" He opened his mouth to speak and she cut him off. "Not the ones we watch together," she promised, making him smile.

"It's a good plan," he agreed.

"Yeah," she whispered as he leaned forward and kissed her. The next day would be their last full one out here. It had all happened so fast, from Halloween to this…

Lucas woke up early the next morning, enough so that Maya still slept when he did. He had time enough not to rush, and he could have stayed there a while longer, but he had a thought, and his only option to see it through meant that he had to get up. So, he moved to rise, taking a moment to kiss but not wake Maya, who merely moved in her sleep, resettling to her pillow with a smile.

It was their last full day here, as they had both somehow brought up a few times over the last week, and with that in mind, all he'd wanted to do today was to get himself to the store, park his car, and just walk around the area for a while. He did feel bad, just a bit, that Maya couldn't be here and do this with him, but it was her who'd inspired him, wasn't it? So, he would just go ahead and do this in her honor.

Eventually, he would circle back toward the store, having picked up coffee or tea for himself and the rest of the staff working Coleman's Books that hot pre-summer morning in Houston. The drinks felt almost overkill in the span of his walk from the coffee place to the bookstore, but once he'd be inside, with the AC that sometimes bordered on 'are you THAT anxious for Christmas?' they would be fine.

He arrived to find both Rosa and her mother had gotten in by now, so he greeted them with their tea and coffee respectively.

"No chance it got cold on the way, huh?" Rosa nonetheless accepted the cup with a grateful bow of the head.

"Thank you very much," Tracy Coleman told him, giving him a sort of sad shake of the head/smile combo. "Won't be the same without you here. I haven't even had the heart to start interviewing people to replace you..."

"Do it or I'm going on strike!" called Rosa from the counter, getting a small laugh out of Lucas. Tracy gave her daughter a look before tapping Lucas on the arm and going off to her office. He walked over to join her, setting down the tray with his and Pete's cups and leaning over the counter.

"Hey, so we were going to do this later, but we won't be here for your graduation..." he started, only to be cut off by Rosa saying that she understood. They'd have a newborn babe to look after by then. "Anyway..." Lucas carried on. "We were... We are, or... I guess the others are now... They want, and we still want, Maya and me, for you to come and live at the house when you start college in the fall." Rosa's eyes went wide, jaw went slack, shocked at once, long enough to add one more thing. "When we moved in, we got our room because it was the biggest and we were the only couple, so maybe it should go to the either of Dylan and Riley or Sophie and Chiara, but... We want you to have it, Maya and me, if you'll have it."

Rosa still had that dumbfounded look on her face, until Lucas waved a hand in her face, and she blinked. A moment later, she was coming around the counter and leaping into a hug, which made Lucas laugh as he hugged her back.

"So, that's a yes?"

"Definitely a yes, that's... oh..." she paused, standing back.

"What?" Lucas asked.

"No, it's nothing, it's just... Well, I have to tell my mom about moving out now..."

"You'll be like two minutes away," he reminded her.

"Good point, good point, yeah," she slowly nodded. A moment later, her grin was back, and she returned to stand behind the counter, looking as bouncy as he'd ever seen her.

The day began in this merry way, and it continued on all throughout the day. Lucas never really saw any day working at Coleman's being bad. If anything, he had good days and he had great days. Today was a great day. He saw several of his regulars, who all lamented his departure and wished him well on the baby, asking that he send pictures back to the store so they could see the little guy. Lucas promised they only had to consult Rosa and she would hook them up. He helped with some displays, and he restocked shelves, which was a very specific sort of thing he liked to do... The hours didn't feel like hours. It wasn't until near the end that he noticed the time and realized the store was soon to close, which meant his day and his time working here were coming to an end.

"Hey, guess what?" Rosa told Lucas as they stood at the counter, twenty minutes before closing.

"What?"

"So, me and Riley and Kayla and Willow, we've been talking with Lily Weaver, you know?"

"The girl in Maya's class, who wanted her to write songs for her group last fall, yeah, I remember," Lucas nodded. Maya had felt so bad about not being able to come through for them at the time, but with their finding out about the baby, and everything they'd had to do at the time, she didn't feel able to really accomplish what Lily and her friends needed from her. They'd understood, and Maya had told them that, in due time, she would help them out.

"Right, yeah, so, ever since Maya told us she was leaving the band for good, I've been thinking about what we're going to do without her. I know we all say we're each as important as the next one, Maya before any of us, but she was our headliner, and we're going to take a hit when she's gone. But I know she wants us to keep going, and we want that, too. So, the way I figured, we needed to give a big push, bring in someone or... some more than one... to show that we still have something worth paying attention to."

"So you're bringing in Lily Weaver?" Lucas guessed.

"And Catriona and Victoria King," Rosa nodded.

"Woah... All of them?"

"Yup."

"So there'll be seven of you? They play instruments?"

"There will, and they don't... not yet... The plan is we'll take summer to hook them up with lessons at Mr and Mrs Regan's store, work up some songs, then in the fall, the big unveiling... TXNY 3.0, now with a whole lotta Aussie," she announced with a big, proud smile, which tipped down halfway a moment later. "I don't know how to tell Maya."

"Why? I mean it's what she wants, she'll be thrilled, especially with those three she wanted to help."

"I know that, but like... She might think she's okay with it, and then when she realizes that we already found new people..."

"Rosa... Tell her," Lucas smiled. She let out a breath, finally nodding.

"Hey, so, I'm really happy for you guys, and that baby boy is going to have the best parents ever, who will do everything for him to have a great life... I'm still going to miss you like hell," she huffed, giving him an awkward smile.

"We're moving to Austin, not Mars," he chuckled, even though her words had meant so much more to him than he could say.

"No, I get that, but I meant here especially," she gestured around the store. "You being here, I finally started actually liking my job. I had the decorating part, with the windows and the tables and all that, but it was all just perks, you know? It made up for feeling stuck with a future I didn't want. You came, and you became my friend, and now I'm good here. Maybe I won't be once you're gone..."

"You'll do great," he smiled. "Whoever your mom gets to replace me, you can make them into someone good to have around, too."

"Well... They won't be no Lucas Friar," she told him with a dramatic roll of the eyes worthy of her former bandmate. Lucas laughed, and he gave her a hug.

"I'm going to miss you, too."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	32. Neither Here Nor There

_Chapter 32_  
_Neither Here Nor There_

When he'd walked out of the store at the end of the night, Lucas had let out a breath. This was it, near enough. One by one, their anchors to Houston had been releasing. School was done, Maya had quit the band, they both had worked their last days at their jobs – Maya weeks ago and now him today – and so there was only one thing left. And it was going to be the biggest one yet. Tomorrow… Tomorrow, they were going to leave their house, and their roommates, and they were going to take off for Austin. With just this one tether left to them, it really got to feel like they were somewhere in between their old and new lives… neither here nor there.

Just a minute ago, as he was about to leave, Tracy Coleman had told him to wait a moment before hurrying back to her office. She'd returned, lugging a large box that looked very heavy, if the look on her face was in any way telling. Lucas had hurried over to relieve her of it, and she'd thanked him. She'd also made him swear to wait and open it only once he and Maya were together. He loaded the box into the backseat of the car now. As he did, he couldn't help but pause a moment, thinking about how there would soon be the baby's seat installed there. Part of him – and of Maya, too, honestly – had wanted to get it in there already, just in case. But with the move tomorrow, they needed the space. So the seat was waiting for them, at the house, back in Austin.

As he suspected it would be, the house was very quiet when he arrived. The only sound was the television, and it was kept very low. Maya looked up from where she sat on the couch when she heard him come in, with the large box weighed in his arms as he lifted it. He'd had to set it down just to get the door open. She was made curious enough by that box that for a moment she just watched him, before finally blinking and getting up from the couch.

"I'd tell you welcome to the land of the unemployed, but you already have your next jobs lined up…"

"Compromise, say I'm between jobs?" he offered, and Maya smirked.

"What's that?" she asked, indicating the box. He went toward the living room, setting the box down on the coffee table before turning to look at her.

"I don't really know," he admitted. "Tracy gave it to me before I left. She said I had to wait to be with you to open it, so I'm thinking gift, for the baby, or us, or all of us…"

"Well, we're here now, so…" she set her hand to the top of the box, looking innocently up at him. He just gave her a nod, and she pounced with a grin. She pulled back the top of the box, finding the contents had been hidden beneath another layer of cardboard. On top of that layer, there was a note. Maya picked it up, quickly read it, then handed it to Lucas with a smile.

_For the young Mr. Friar, as you begin your journey…_

Pulling back the cardboard cover, Maya and Lucas looked inside the box to discover what was easily several dozens of books, many of them small and thin, others slightly thicker… Plenty of material to stimulate a growing boy's mind, and send him off to dreams with a head full of wonder… Tracy had once said that she'd have them covered, but they hadn't expected her to come through quite in this way. This was without a doubt a wealth, a treasure. It made them think about sitting in that nursery, reading to him, and they had no words. It wouldn't be long now… a few more weeks…

"We probably shouldn't take them out of that box before we're over there, right?" Maya asked, hands kept close to herself like she didn't trust that she wouldn't reach in if given the slightest chance.

"It… would make more sense if we went through them when we can put them in the nursery, right?" he offered as a viable solution to her uncertainty.

"Right, no, yeah," she breathed out, though she was still looking inside… "Okay," she stuck the top back on the box. "Let's go."

They made their way upstairs and to their room. It didn't even feel like their room anymore. All their things were here, the ones not yet brought to Austin, but they were in boxes, or pulled into pieces. The only thing that was still intact was their bed, and that would be pulled apart first thing in the morning. They were going to put it in Pappy Joe's new room, it had been decided. As they climbed in now, Lucas just went ahead and pulled off the covers, leaving only the fitted sheet and their pillows. Maya would be too hot to touch them, and he didn't particularly need them either.

"It's our last night in this room and this bed, might as well make it look the part, huh?" Maya joked as she sat and slowly laid back, turning on to her side to face him as he sat on his side of the bed.

"Need anything?" he asked, watching her as she worked to find her position and get comfortable.

"Might need you to do your whole movie distraction thing for me," she whispered, looking up at him. "Not sure if I'll be able to fall asleep, too much pressure."

"Want me to read you a story?" he asked, lying on his side to meet her gaze. "We suddenly have a lot of material downstairs."

"No way, if you get to dig through that box then I do, too," she insisted, laughing.

"Alright, that's true," he nodded, settling in closer to her, as much as he could, with the divide of that great pillow. He looked into her eyes, thinking about the day to come, leading them all the way to their next night, one of the few they'd spend all by themselves in their house. Pappy Joe would only move in after the baby was born. He'd insisted that they deserved to have this time to themselves before everything up and changed for them. "So, anything I _can_ do to help you sleep?"

"Tell me about your day?" she suggested, smiling as she thought aloud, "Tell both of us." This made him smile, too, setting his hand to her belly like he'd known already that he'd feel their sprout was on the move. The motion he felt gave him the impression that the baby was having himself a leisurely evening swim. "And if I fall asleep…"

"It'll be a good thing," he suggested.

"Yes," Maya agreed. "And you will just have to tell me the rest tomorrow, in the car, on the way to Austin."

"I can definitely do that," Lucas told her, leaning forward to kiss her before settling in for a bit of sprout talk. He addressed both Maya and their son to be, telling them about his last day working at the bookstore. He'd barely made it to when he'd unlocked and opened the doors for the last time before he'd looked up and found that Maya had fallen asleep. Just to be on the safe side, he carried on quietly for some time before accepting that she was indeed asleep. He moved back up to his pillow, turning off the lamp on the nightstand before facing his sleeping fiancée again. "Who's going to get _me_ to sleep?" he whispered, barely above a breath.

They were _both_ so excited for the next day, couldn't have it come fast enough, and yet his brain was presenting him this challenge, turning his excitement into something that would keep him wide awake when he needed to sleep, for rest's sake as much as for how it would make the time go by. He carefully slipped his fingers around Maya's hand until he held it. Closing his eyes, he focused on the sound of her breathing, slow and even. He let the sound draw him in, until slowly but surely it got to be that he matched her. He drifted off into dreams, and their final night in Houston went on its way, as well as either of them could have hoped.

Maya woke first, as she had been prone to do, because she had to go to the bathroom. She got up, carried herself sleepily off to deal with this, and finally returned. It wasn't until she sat on the edge of the bed again that she stopped and looked up for a moment, looked around the room… _their_ room, although by now, seeing as they'd be gone in a matter of hours, was it still theirs or was it in a transitional period in the middle? Neither their room nor Rosa's?

It was still theirs, for now. So long as they still occupied it, this was still their room, and this was still their house.

"What time is it?" Lucas mumbled, just waking up, as Maya had been pulling herself back into bed, propping herself up against her pillows.

"Almost seven," she told him, reaching over to brush her fingers through his hair. It was as good as a beckoning call, inciting him to scoot over and lean against her. She smiled, carrying on.

"Hank will be here at ten," he stated. "That'll give us time to get ready, have breakfast, and get everything downstairs," he reflected.

"Yeah, it will do that, so we don't have to rush. We can just lie here for a while."

"We can do that," Lucas smiled, and she smiled back. For a few seconds they'd come to just lie there, watching her bump rise and fall with her breaths, feeling as though it expressed the activity and the life within. As much as they had been preparing, and counting down the days, getting them closer and closer to the move, they both knew that what they'd really been counting down to were the days before they'd finally get to hold their son in their arms.

"Oh, no…" Maya blinked.

"What?" Lucas asked, sitting up just a bit. Before she ended up having to tell him, there was a knock at their door and he understood: she'd heard movement from outside. Their moment of peace was to be interrupted.

"Hey, guys?" Dylan could be heard, speaking just loud enough as to be heard.

"You can come in," Lucas let him know, and the door opened.

"Sorry, it's just that your uncle's here," Dylan informed Lucas.

"Already?" Maya blinked.

"Well, they're all here, I mean… the whole family. And they've got food."

As advertised, Lucas and Maya made their way down the stairs a few minutes later to discover the Hillards were among them, and they had seen to breakfast, by the looks of it. Hank and Joseph would be following along when they'd start for Austin, in the truck. Lucas' cousin was very excited at the prospect of pitching in with the move. They had barely arrived that he wanted to go up and see about any furniture in need of being disassembled. His mother had directed him by the shoulders so he would sit and eat with the rest of them.

When they'd gone up there to empty out the room, Maya had remained downstairs, on the couch. The primary reason, the one she'd give anyway, was that she would either get in the way or risk getting hurt. Beyond that though, if she was honest, it was mostly that she couldn't bear to see the room being emptied out. It would have happened sooner or later, even without the baby, but something about it happening now, compounded with all the other things that weren't ending when they'd been supposed to end… She wouldn't see it empty. The next time they'd come, whenever that was, it would have become Rosa's room. Hopefully, she'd be okay with seeing it that way.

"How is the baby going to come out?" Maggie Hillard asked, as she and her brother Henry sat on either side of her, observing her with great curiosity.

"Uh…" Maya hesitated. Sooner or later, she'd found, little kids would want to know, and as usual she'd find herself alone with them, their parents off elsewhere, in this case assisting in getting hers and Lucas' things out of the house and into the truck and the car. Sarah and Evie were standing nearby, playing a dance game on the television. At her little sister's question, Evie turned and looked as though she would say something like 'oh, I know how that happens' and proceed to traumatize her siblings. Maya just caught her eye like 'please don't,' but then the game drew the girl back and they let it go. "Tell you what, later on, when she's not busy, you just go ahead and ask your mom, okay?

"I saw cats being born once," Henry informed her. She turned to him.

"At your mom's clinic?" Maya guessed, and he nodded.

"I wanted to keep one, but she said we couldn't because Dad's allergic."

"Yeah, that wouldn't work, would it?" Maya tried not to laugh, remembering how Lucas had told her that his aunt would have to go through a whole process, whenever she'd leave the clinic, to ensure she didn't bring any 'surprises' that would cause Hank any distress.

The girls' score barely had time to appear on the screen when they had finished their song before Maggie sprang up and declared that it was hers and Henry's turn to go. The two of them got up and were soon replaced by their older sisters.

"Can we be there when you have the baby?" Sarah asked. Of the five Hillard kids, she was easily the one who'd win most likely to pass for _her_ sister.

"Well, probably not _in_ the room right when it happens, but at the hospital, sure, if your parents will bring you to Austin…"

"I wish you weren't leaving Houston," Evie lamented. "We could have been babysitters." Maya laughed, just a bit, though mostly she was of a mind with her as far as the not leaving part. The closer they'd get to that threshold between here and there, her nostalgia would just rise to an all-time high.

"Maybe we can still work something out later on," she'd told the girls, which seemed to be enough for now.

It wasn't all that long in the end before the room was completely emptied, and everything that the two of them needed to take along with them had all been packed off into Lucas' car and Hank's truck. They were ready to go… almost ready…

"I don't like this part…" Maya whispered to Lucas as he came back up to join her after getting the last loads in. The very last things to go in the car, other than the two of them, would be the dogs, who had been acting appropriately antsy all morning, like they knew something big was about to happen.

"So, you just want to go _without_ saying…" Lucas asked, knowing she would instantly shoot down the idea. Whether or not she wanted to do it, she couldn't leave without saying goodbye. It wasn't as though they would never see their friends again, never talk to them, but they all knew that, once Maya and Lucas were gone, and soon looking after their newborn boy, their lives would not be nearly intertwined as they had been over the past years. And they had preferred their lives that way, they really had, like that was exactly the way they all belonged.

Chiara had come along and embraced her, insisting that she, of all of them, was the least likely to break apart or make _them_ break apart. But then it was like she'd just remembered what she 'owed' them, owed Maya especially, for having enabled her encounter with Sophie, and suddenly the thought of not having the two of them at the house anymore had gone and challenged her composure to the point of breaking. After that, there was no coming down the emotional rollercoaster of these goodbyes.

Dylan had come next giving his old friend a solid hug, the kind he might have given to Maya, too, if not for the baby of it all. Still, when he'd come to stand before her, there had been this almost held breath between them.

"You know I realized something?" Maya told him. He didn't know, he replied. "You've always been like the kid brother I'd wish I had when I was little. Just a… good-hearted little hellion," she laughed, especially as this made him beam with pride.

When Sophie had come and hugged Maya, she'd had to take several deep breaths, her face gaining in color to match her fire-colored hair. There were no words for how much her friendship meant to her, and near or far, Auntie Sophie would be all over that baby boy.

"We're coming over in a couple of days, okay?" she turned to hug Lucas now. "So, don't get ahead of yourselves trying to do everything. Just take it easy, settle in, and we'll be coming over soon."

"Got it," he promised, knowing as well as she did that this was her way of trying to contain her emotions. It only worked so far, as she retreated and was soon leaning to her girlfriend's side, as Chiara put her arm around her and let her weep quietly.

It was down to Riley now, and no one would fault them for looking like they'd both dreaded this moment most of all. They'd been separated by distance before, the first year Maya had been in Texas, they knew what it was like. Sure, it was only two hours now, hardly anything compared with the distance between New York and Texas, but their lives were about to change… so much more than before, and that left them to contemplate a whole new kind of separation. They stood there, holding on to one another without a word, for a few minutes.

"You start feeling anything that feels like labor, you call me," Riley insisted.

"Got you on speed dial," Maya vowed, trying not to leave the mess that was her face on Riley's sleeve. "Saving you a front row seat to that horror show," she managed a joke, and Riley nodded.

There was nothing for it now, they had to get a move on, get the dogs in the car and then…

"Wait! Wait for me!" a voice shouted from up the street, and they turned to find Rosa sprinting up the sidewalk, all the while carrying a bag she tried to keep from flapping in the wind. The weather hadn't gotten any better, and several of them showed it in how the effort of moving out had left them sweat drenched earlier. Rosa, coming up toward them at a fast run, reached them and looked like she would pass out for how out of breath she was. She gave Lucas a look and a tap to the arm like 'I got you last night' before turning to Maya.

"Want some water? Why didn't you call or…" Maya asked her as Rosa was attempting to catch her breath.

"Thought… had time… later… _truck_… hurry…"

"It's okay, I got it," Maya told her, so she'd stop talking and start breathing.

"For you," she shook her head, holding up the bag. "Careful… Wait to later…"

"Sure, yeah, I…" She was cut off as Rosa hugged her. Maya felt strongly that, even without words, she would know exactly what Rosa wanted her to know, just by that hug. She smiled, hugging her back. Dylan was like a brother, and here was Rosa, so like a sister that she'd just never seen coming… The difference here was that the feeling was absolutely mutual.

Trix and Lou had always been excellent car dogs, which was a good thing, with a long drive ahead of them. They were let into the back seat, the windows open on both sides. After saying goodbye to Tanya and the kids, Lucas and Maya got into the car, too. They took off just ahead of Hank and Joseph in the truck. It never got easier. Maya had done this twice before, leaving New York all those years ago, and then leaving Austin when they'd moved here for college… At least with this second experience, when she had genuinely been looking forward to the destination, this third time _was_ just bearable enough that she could take a deep breath, and look to Lucas as he smiled and nodded at her, and rest her hands over and under her belly, and it would be alright.

"Next stop, Austin," she told him, and he got the car started and on to the street. _Next stop, home…_

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	33. The Friars From Up the Lane

**_A/N: Please note that the next chapter will be a day later than usual, on Tuesday, December 31st along with the last chapter of the main timeline's story for 2019. Moving onward, the chapters of this story will be going up on Tuesdays_ _to coincide once again with the week blocks for the main story in 2020!_**

* * *

_Chapter 33_  
_The Friars From Up the Lane_

To their knowledge, they had never gotten so clear of a drive as they got that day. Not the slightest bit of traffic stalling them, no stops except those required by signs or lights. It was like they were being ushered through as promptly as one could, either to make the process as painless as possible or to get them to the good part as soon as they could. Either way, maybe because of the dogs, or all those landmarks they had gotten to know over the last two years, it felt as though they'd blinked and then they were in Austin, and getting closer to home before they had time to process it.

"I think those two are getting as restless as I am," Maya turned and reached out to give the dogs a scratch, which they happily received.

"We're almost there," Lucas told her.

"Good, because I have… business to attend to when we arrive," she took a breath.

"How about we stop at Ma Maggie's on the way, grab lunch. You can take care of that business now and when we arrive at the house you can actually enjoy it." He turned to look at her and found her smiling brightly back at him. "Yes?" he smirked.

"Please," she tipped her head.

Maya sent a text out to Joseph, letting him know about the detour, leaving it up to him and Hank whether they preferred to follow them there or carry on toward the house. If they did go on, they had to promise not to go and start unloading until Maya and Lucas arrived, too. This was what they chose.

"Lucas Friar, look at you!" He had quickly been greeted by one of the waitresses, Holly, as he walked in. Maya had already made a beeline for the bathroom, or else she would have been accosted, too. For now, Lucas welcomed the friendly hug he got from the woman. She had been working here for years, had known him since he used to come in as a kid. She had actually gone to school with his parents, and so even though he hadn't seen or spoken to her since last fall, she knew... "About to be a daddy, aren't you? Or are you already?" she looked around, seeking either a very pregnant woman or one with a stroller.

"Just a few weeks to go," he nodded, his chest filling with the inevitable joy that came with his thinking about that day, coming ever closer. "She had to go," he pointed off toward the ladies' room, and Holly gave a knowing nod. "We're actually moving back today, up at my grandfather's old place."

"Then we should be seeing much more of you," Holly pressed her hands together like this was the best news she'd heard all week. "And the little one..."

"You will," he promised.

He had made the order and was now waiting for it to be ready by the time Maya emerged again, looking entirely more at ease. When Lucas caught her eye, he gave a tip of the head toward Holly, signing for her to go say hello. When the woman turned and saw her, she let out a happy little cry before hugging her as well, stepping back a moment later to get a good look at her. Maya would say how she couldn't believe she had believed herself to be that big a couple months back, when by now she was just reaching levels of roundness just so far beyond.

"So, you're just not going to wait until we get home, huh?" Lucas asked when he climbed back into the car and found that Maya had already gotten the container with her lunch opened.

"Nope," she laughed, tearing off a bit of pancake and eating it. She also had a baggie filled with doggy treats, also from Ma Maggie's. She pulled one out and quickly had a pair of eager customers trying to squeeze in between the seats. "One at a time, hey, sit," she told Trix and Lou, and they sat. She gave Lou the first one, knowing Mama Trix to be generally more patient, or at least that she would want to see little Lou fed. A second treat was given, and this one went to Trix. Maya gave the dog's head a scratch before turning back around and holding her lunch up for Lucas to get a bit.

"Thanks," he smiled, getting a bit of pancake before starting them on their way to the house.

"I liked that, by the way."

"What?"

"You asked if I was going to wait until we were home... Like we'd been there already," she explained. "I mean, I know we have, for renovations and all, but it's the first time that we're actually going... home."

"We are," he agreed as they drove on from the restaurant.

The stop had really gotten them both about as pumped as they could get about going into their home for the first time, as residents at the very least. With some relief and also with the food they had yearned for from a distance for two years, they were headed home.

It was no surprise that, as they drove down the lane and toward the house, they could see a number of cars already parked in wait. Along with Hank and Joseph, Maya's parents were here, and so were Lucas' parents, and his grandfather, too. The Matthews were also on hand, and it made Maya beam, thinking of Riley. She might have been back in Houston, where she would remain for the next two years at the least, but there was absolutely a part of her in Austin.

Their friends, their 'parental circle,' were due to make an appearance later that day. For now, it was a family affair, and all they could think about was just how lucky their boy would be to have these people in his life, to love him, to show him the way…

When he had pulled the car to a stop, Lucas reached into the back and got the door open, which was all the signal the dogs needed to just shoot off and go running around. As soon as they spotted them, Nellie and Gracie Hunter squealed and went chasing after them, which in turn pulled their father to follow, making sure they didn't wander off where they shouldn't go.

"See, this is why I ate on the way," Maya told Lucas. "Your stuff's going to be cold."

"Bit hard to eat, drive, and not crash," he countered.

"Right… Want me to make them leave?" she asked, beaming. He did not. "Alright, then… You eat, I'll entertain," she gave her belly a small tap before climbing out of the car. He laughed, vaguely hearing her say something about 'this bleeping weather' as she marched off.

She wasn't going to go through that door, not until Lucas was there to go in with her. He might have liked to carry her over the threshold, but at this point it just would not have been safe. Anyway, they had the wedding for that…

"We didn't keep you waiting, did we? I had to go to the bathroom real bad, and then _he_ promised me food, so what was I going to do, say no?" Maya told her mother as she went up to her. Katy smiled, closing her arms around her eldest, her baby girl, who was finally back, living in the same city as her if not in the same house.

"A bit too hot for my taste, but it's alright, your father saw to it that we wouldn't boil," she joked. Maya pulled back now, looking down, and it was beyond surreal to see her own… vastness… and then right there before her, she would see the now noticeable swell in her mother's belly. She was beyond happy to see it.

When Lucas came up and joined them, Maya looked at him, and her eyes seemed to ask if he had just shovelled all that food in his mouth in two minutes flat. He couldn't really answer, mostly because he still had his last bite mid-chew. Maya came this close to tricking him in revealing this, but instead she kept talking to her mother, allowing him to swallow and be done with it.

"Welcome home! Welcome!" Melinda Friar came burrowing through until she could reach her son, hugging him and pressing one kiss to each cheek once, and twice, and then hugging him until he could hardly stay on his feet. Maya warned him that he'd just eaten, like a minute ago, and she let him go, for which he looked eternally grateful. She would be much more careful as she moved this greeting over to her future daughter-in-law and her grandson just weeks from being born… "Oh, there is so much I have been dying for us to do all year," she told Maya with an emotional smile.

"Mom," Lucas nodded past her, where Melinda now found others who wanted to say hello.

"Yes, sorry, please," she stepped back, allowing her husband to step forward.

When everyone had remembered that it was ridiculously hot – as though anyone could forget – they had decided to leave conversation off for later, once they'd gone into the house, where one of the last things to be done had been to install air conditioning. The longer they stood outside, the harder it would be to motivate themselves to start emptying the truck and the car. So, Maya and Lucas made their way up to the door together.

It still felt surreal. As life-changing as the discovery of their having conceived a child together was bound to be, especially for where they both were in their lives, they continued to be aware of how fortunate they had been, especially where it came to this house here. It had been given to them, even before the baby. They were aware of what a home could cost, especially one like this. And with much generosity… so much generosity… from their families and friends, they found themselves here, as homeowners, as soon-to-be parents, soon-to-be newlyweds… He'd had to transfer schools, and there was no guarantee that he wouldn't find his education interrupted in another way at some time or another. And she… She'd had to put her studies on hold, had to give up the band… They both made those choices gladly, for the sake of this child they'd made, but they also knew and recognized just how fortunate they were, to stand here, in this moment.

"I don't get why I'm nervous, I know what it looks like in there," Maya whispered, as Lucas took out his keys.

That much was true, they did both know what would await them through that door. Even then, as it swung open and they looked in, swept with the cooled air of the AC system, they were just… happy, contented. They were home. They had worked for months to make the place their own, and there was still work to be done, objects and furniture to place, boxes to open and unload… but it still felt like their place. And that was a wonderful feeling.

As before, in Houston, Maya had been made to keep out of the way as everything was unloaded from the truck and the car. She didn't mind this one bit. Sitting on the couch, no longer sweating it up outside, she had no intent or desire to move. Actually, after a while, she dozed off.

When she woke up again, it took her a moment to realize where she was, to remember what day it was and where they were going to be on said day. It was quiet around her. All she could hear was the familiar shuffle of the dogs, and what she guessed to be someone typing on a phone. Opening her eyes, she discovered she'd been right on all accounts. Trix and Lou were trailing after one another, looking just a bit surprised but overall at ease with their new environment. Next to her, there sat Lucas, typing away.

"Where is everyone?" Maya asked.

"Home, or on their way there. They just left about ten minutes ago," he revealed.

"They did? What time…" she pulled out her own phone to discover it was now late afternoon, almost dinner time. "Why didn't you wake me?" she asked, rubbing sleep from her face.

"I don't know if you've seen yourself when you're asleep, but it's hard to disturb. Plus, with the heat outside, we all figured it'd be best to let you stay as you were." She still looked disappointed over not getting to spend more time with them, but then Lucas said more or less what she'd thought in that moment. "It's okay. You'll see them again tomorrow, or the day after that, or whenever you want… We're back." It returned a smile to her face and she nodded in agreement.

"You got everything…"

"The furniture can be moved; we'll figure it out. The boxes, we tried to stack them where they wouldn't be in the way, so they might be jumbled. But it's all here." _We'll figure it out._

"Oh, when are Ainsley and the others…"

"I was just writing them now, to ask if we could reschedule to tomorrow. It's getting late, and I was thinking we could spend our first night here together on our own," Lucas smiled. Trix barked. "She knows what I mean," he turned to look at her, pointing to Maya, who laughed.

"I want to go see, down here, upstairs…" He stood at once, offering his hands to help her up. "When I moved out here with my mom, it took me a while to really feel at home," Maya recalled as they took their tour. Stopping in the kitchen, she could see that someone had gone grocery shopping for them, stocking the pantry and the refrigerator and freezer.

"I remember you telling me," Lucas nodded.

"I mean, it was different. I was upset, I didn't want to be out here. It didn't matter that our old apartment had a lot left to be desired, and that our little house was almost a palace by comparison. If anything, that made it worse. It wasn't my home, and I didn't feel like I belonged there. And then when I moved again, it was to go to Houston, with you, with Riley, and Dylan, and Sophie. That was different, too, in its own way. I was excited to be there, just like I am to be here. It still took me a while to get used to it."

"So, you're not used to this place yet," Lucas gathered.

"Right," she nodded. "I still need to sort of… dig myself into it, you know? We both do. Then it'll really be ours. The sounds will be ours, the scents, the feel of… everything around us, in the house, and outside… Getting around the area, knowing the neighbors some more… I'm looking forward to us having all that figured out."

They climbed the stairs up to the second floor. When they got there, they paused for a moment, looking at the spot in the ceiling, the place where Pappy Joe had once meant to lay a door into an expansion on the house, an attic. Seeing it there, recalling the reason why they'd never created that attic, the loss of little Annabeth Friar, Pappy Joe's younger child and Tom's sister, Lucas' aunt… The mark in the ceiling sat there like a feeling of dread, an omen… They didn't like it, not with their child soon coming into the world. They'd ignored it all these months, because everything they'd been doing had been for one purpose, and one purpose only, which was to get the place ready to welcome them and their boy. But now that they were finally moving in, living here, it was becoming something they couldn't help but see.

"What do you think we should do?" Maya asked.

"I don't know," Lucas admitted. "We're not about to tear the roof off this house, not when we're about to bring a newborn to live under it."

"_I_ don't know if I can keep seeing that there, thinking about…" she shook her head, didn't want to say it. Her hands had adopted the now almost default position of laying one on top and one under her belly, wanting to protect their sprout.

"We'll do something," he promised her. She could trust his word on that, didn't even have to wonder.

Moving past the spot in the ceiling, they stopped in the middle of the hall, with a door at either side of them. On one side was the door to the nursery. Looking inside, even though there was still the walls to attend to, with the mural Maya had been planning for months, actively or subconsciously… the room still kind of took their breath away. They imagined so many hours, days and weeks and months… years… with their baby boy growing and evolving…

"Do you know where Tracy's box ended up?" Maya looked to Lucas, who was way ahead of her and already had the closet door open. There sat the box, along loads of other items stored away.

"I had a feeling we'd end up here," he told her.

"We can sort it out in our room," she went out into the hall and straight into their room, carrying a smile on her lips all along.

Lucas brought the box across the hall, finding that Maya had already kicked off her shoes and sat on the edge of their bed. Her face had gone contemplative.

"Maybe I shouldn't sit here, I could fall asleep again." They both recalled just how comfortable the new mattress was, so that was a definite possibility.

"I'll keep an eye on you," Lucas assured her. She laughed, but she took him up on that offer, pulling herself to sit on the bed, legs and all. He came and helped to prop her up with pillows, and once she was comfortable, he brought the box to where she could see it and reach into it, and he opened it up again, revealing once more the note from Tracy Coleman and the covering layer of cardboard. They stared in at the loads of books.

"Want to make a bet on how many there are in here?" Maya looked up at him.

"What's the wager?" he inquired. She considered this.

"I mean I _could_ play the whole 'I'm having your baby, isn't that enough?' card, but if I did then I would always win and it wouldn't be any fun."

"Agreed," Lucas nodded, making her smile again.

"So, whoever is the furthest away from the actual number has to… uh…" Maya frowned. She was having trouble coming up with a 'punishment' they could both do in the near future, in the event that _she_ lost. Lucas would know better than to go and let her win, so she had to be able to do it, regardless of being 'way out to here with child.' It wasn't like she couldn't do anything, she was in pretty good shape, but she was very aware of her limits, and she didn't want to surpass any of them. "I've got nothing," she finally whispered, slightly defeated.

"If I happen to win, I will make it so that you don't have to do your part for like… three months?" Lucas offered. "It'll be right around the wedding," he pointed out, which made her laugh. Like she didn't remember.

"Alright then," she declared. "Loser buys breakfast every Saturday morning for a year," she announced with her chin high in the air.

"Wow, okay, we're playing rough," he rubbed his hands together. Maya smirked. "Not to twist anything in, but if you lose how are _you_ going to hold up your end of the bargain?"

"What, because I don't have a job and I'll be home with the baby so I won't be working for a while?" she suggested. He tipped his head as though to say 'well, yeah.' In response, she pulled out her phone and turned it over to him after pulling up a page, which looked like a grid, a ledger.

"What's this?" he thought aloud.

"_This_ is all the pieces I have sold so far." He was aware that her project to put some of her artwork for sale had started to pull in customers, but he hadn't realized there were this many. Some items, he saw, had prices in triple digits… When he pointed this out, she nodded. "Paintings. I figure I can get started on those in the next few weeks, before I'm up in diaper land. _And_ Professor Robinson offered to take me on look over a manuscript of hers, paying for my time… So, _if_ I lose, which is a big if, you don't have to worry about me, I'm good for it."

"Oh, I love you, marry me and have my baby," he declared, borrowing her often used dramatic tone. She burst out laughing. "Okay, come on, hey," he tapped her arm. "The books," he pointed back to the box. "No counting. We look for… five seconds, and then we say our numbers, yeah?"

"Okay, okay, let me just pull myself together," she sat up straight, taking a deep breath and another. "I'm ready."

"On three, five seconds," he told her. They both sat in silence for a moment, making sure they knew what he meant. Finally, she nodded. "Right. One, two, three!" They looked inside the box. _Five, four, three, two, one…_ Lucas put the top back on the box and they stared at each other.

"Fifty-eight!" Maya declared.

"Fi…" Lucas sat up. "Wow…"

"Why, what's your number?"

"I was going to say forty-five," he revealed.

"Alright, then. Fifty-eight versus forty-five. Let's see who buys breakfast next week. And the week after that… and every other week until next year… No! Better. Until _he_ is one," she set her hand on her belly. He lay his hand over hers. Deal.

As one eager pair, they began looking through the box, pulling out book after book after book and making piles of this bounty they had been granted, thanks to Rosa's mother and Coleman Books.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	34. A View of the World

_Chapter 34_  
_A View of the World_

In all the weeks and months leading up to their move from Houston back to Austin, both Maya and Lucas had, at one time or another, envisioned their first morning in their own house, just the two of them, the dogs, and the sprout growing inside his mother's belly.

Lucas had imagined waking up as they had once down, big spoon and little spoon, her body curved to his and his arm around her, cradling her round belly along with her, sunlight streaming through the window, the quiet of morning in their corner of the world. He would make her breakfast, which he would bring up to her to eat in bed. They would eventually start casually opening boxes, start to unpack and make the house even more their own. The reason everyone had worked so hard before the move was so that they could have this time now, to relax and prepare themselves for the birth of their son, after which life would take on that special brand of chaos that came along with a newborn, and they would be as prepared for it as anyone could expect to be, as first time parents.

Maya's dream saw her walking peacefully through the house, bare feet acclimating themselves to the floor underneath them. She would stand outside the front door, with her bowl of cereal, and she would look out at the land beyond their house, feeling for the first time now that, for all the twists and turns brought on by the last several months and the prospects of the months and years to come with their boy, in the end they had landed in as favorable of a position as they could hope for. This was even beyond hope, wasn't it? They had this great house, and the thought of raising their sprout in this place… It only made her ponder a future where there would be more little sprouts along with their firstborn.

Their first morning in the house started just before sunrise, when Maya felt a pain that woke her up at once and briefly took her breath away.

"Lucas… Lucas, wake up," she reached back to shake his arm. He was so exhausted after the day before that he was in a much deeper sleep than usual, or else he would have bolted upright at the first sound of his name. In this case, it took him a while longer to actually hear her say his name, wake up enough to hear what she was saying. "Lucas, get dressed, _now!_"

Now he sat up. He still had sleep in his eyes, but he could see her sitting there, holding to her belly. She wasn't in distress, not exactly, though she was working extra hard at breathing properly.

"Wha… Is this for real?" he bolted to his feet and came around to where she sat, legs dangling over the edge of the bed.

"I don't know," she admitted, shaking her head. "Maybe… maybe it's not but… oh…" she breathed deep for a moment before continuing to speak. "The hospital's not that close, and if it _is_ real, it'll take a while for an ambulance to get here, or…"

"O-Okay… okay… Let's go then," he looked around, remembered they hadn't unpacked yet, and just hurried to pull on his clothes from the day before. Maya just had him help get her shoes on and grab her bag, and then he helped her toward the stairs. She was still in her tank top and PJ pants, but she did not care to try and change right about now. Already, the prospect of going down the stairs was not one she was looking forward to. What if the baby just… popped out… and smashed his little head on the stairs? That was _not_ how she wanted him to enter the world, and so she kept her legs as close together as she could, which did not help to get her down those stairs.

As soon as they'd reached the bottom, Lucas had briefly left her there to go and get the car started and closer to the door. When he came dashing back in, he found her sitting on the bottom stairs, running her hand along the curve of her belly.

"I've got the car…" he moved to help her rise, but she shook her head.

"It stopped…" she told him. "It wasn't real, it's fine…"

"Are you sure? Maybe you're just between…"

"No," Maya assured him, pulling at his hand so he'd come and sit next to her. "It was just a false alarm. No baby time." She'd already had time to come off the panic mode she'd woken into. It took him a minute or so to get to that point along with her. Once he did, he went back out to stop the car before coming back inside and shutting the door which had previously been left open. He sat with her again, getting hold of her hand.

"That was…"

"Yeah… Not exactly how I pictured this day going," she turned a weak smile toward him. He reached over and cradled her head, kissing the side of it.

"Rough start, but it's still early. The sun's just coming up, want to go see?" he pointed to the door. "It's a little cooler out there right now."

They got up, and he took her to sit out front. They watched the sun rise together, trying to chase away the last of the anxious feeling brought on by their false alarm. Now that it had happened here with him, Maya felt able to tell him about the first time she'd gone through something like this, at the university, with Professor Robinson. She told him about how badly she'd been afraid, how it had just taken her over, overriding any sort of rationality in her until she was just sitting there, trembling and clueless. It had all been so new to her at the time, so at least they had that much on their side. It hadn't been new to her anymore, not this time around. As startling as it had been, she'd been able to keep a more level head, and she'd known soon enough whether it was real or not.

Maya didn't want to go back in just yet. It was as Lucas had said, the weather was nice this morning, the breeze… well, it existed, for one, bringing relief from the heat, although the cover from the roof did that as well. She wanted to stay here and enjoy it. They needed to start unpacking, she realized that, but she didn't feel she had the energy for it right now. She wasn't hungry for breakfast yet either, nor was Lucas, so they stayed as they were, plotting out what they _would_ do, later, as they went back inside to tackle the first of their boxes. A system was developed, to ensure that they would get the house as uncluttered as they could, as soon as possible. Lucas and the others who'd been here the day before had done _some _of that, and they had helped with boxes a bit, too, but those had mostly been things that anyone could place, like dishes in the kitchen. Even that, he suspected, would need to be moved around, to his and Maya's preference.

"Do you want me to reschedule with the others again?" Lucas asked, as he brought out breakfast for the two of them, an hour or so after their false alarm.

"No, I'm good, I'd like them to come," she smiled. "I should try and go to the pool, get some exercise in… You could come with me."

"For water aerobics?" he asked, and she nodded, biting back a smirk. "Yeah," he nodded firmly. "You're on." She laughed.

They'd let out the dogs after Lucas had brought their plates back inside. Trix and Lou were very eager to go and explore their new surroundings, whether or not they understood that this was what it was, that they were here for good, to stay. Maya and Lucas both kept their eyes on the pair of them, making sure that they wouldn't wander off too far.

As they were watching the two of them chase after one another, a new dog came into view, barking and running in their direction, like it was eager to say hello to these new dogs it didn't know. Instead, it moved right past them and straight toward the house, up the stairs and toward Maya, who recognized the Jack Russell Terrier in a split second, even though she hadn't seen her in five months.

"Coraline…" she beamed, as the dog came up to her, a giddy ball of fur who definitely remembered her, too. "Hey…" Maya laughed, carefully reaching to pull her up into her arms. "Did you run away again? You're not supposed to do that, remember?" she laughed, as the dog gave her some good kisses in greeting. "Yes, I'm happy to see you, too." Trix and Lou were a bit less certain about this new dog getting up there with Maya and with the little one they had so valiantly guarded all this time. Lucas, who'd recognized the dog, too, was settling them down even as he looked back to the road. With any luck, the pup hadn't so much run off as he'd just gotten ahead of her owner.

When he spotted Missy Sanderson jogging up the road, he waved his arm to get her attention and she hurried over. The ten-year-old lived further up the lane, with her parents and her grandparents. They had seen her a few times after the morning of January 1st, when Maya had found little Coraline, after she'd wandered off the night before, afraid of the New Year's Eve fireworks. They'd met several of their future neighbors before finding the house she belonged to.

"I saw you come yesterday," Missy told Lucas when she reached the house now. "I wanted to come and say hi, but my grandma said I should wait and let you settle in first." She briefly looked past Lucas, through the screen door, like she would see some sign that, yes, they had settled in, so she was allowed to come over now.

"Here," Maya smiled, patting the seat next to her. "You thirsty?" The girl nodded. Maya looked to Lucas with a 'pleading' smile.

"Lemonade sound good?" he asked Missy, who nodded once again.

"So, what are you up to today?" Maya asked their young neighbor. Having her around made Maya happy in a way she couldn't explain, although she could say it was the mother-to-be in her just… flexing her muscles. Anyway, after the way her morning had started, she wasn't opposed to having someone like Missy Sanderson around, with Coraline the dog – named after the character, book _and_ movie. This gave her an idea.

"Nothing," Missy shrugged. "I have to go to ballet class after lunch," she frowned.

"You don't like it?" Maya guessed.

"No, I do," Missy insisted, her face a giant 'but…' Maya looked at her and waited to hear it. "The other girls don't like me."

"They don't?" Maya asked, like this just didn't seem possible. Eventually, Missy amended her statement.

"Lana and Piper don't like me."

"And the rest of the class does what they say?" Maya guessed. Missy nodded. _There's always one… Sometimes there's two…_ "Did you tell your parents?" Another nod. "What did they say?"

"That I shouldn't pay attention to them and listen to my teacher instead. But… they won't leave me alone." As if being bullied wasn't bad enough, it was also making her not want to do something she actually loved. It made Maya so mad, and if it wasn't that she wasn't exactly in a state to do anything to help the girl today, she would so have marched into that classroom and set those little ballerina twerps in their places. It might have been then that things would turn around for Missy, and for her other classmates, who probably just didn't want to incur the wrath of 'Lana and Piper.' She still didn't know Missy all that much, but she would have wanted to help her even if she'd just met her, because who wouldn't?

"I'm sorry it has to be like that. Just keep doing what your parents said. And if it doesn't work, then talk to your teacher, okay?" Missy turned to her. "There's no shame in it," Maya assured her, as Lucas returned with lemonade for Missy and water for her. "Until then, do you think you could help me with something? It might cheer you up a bit…" The girl was intrigued at once.

There were fifty-two books in Tracy's box. It could have been seen like a sort of 'one book a week' thing, except that some of the books would only be for later, as the baby grew out of his infancy, into a toddler, a small child… The box had been brought back into the nursery, so the books hadn't been sorted yet, or put on their shelves. When Maya asked Missy if she'd like to help her do that, the girl was on board at once. For about an hour, they sort through the books, figured out how to best organize them, and then they had been put away to create a very nice display indeed…

"Can I read to him? After he's born?" Missy asked as they made their way back down the stairs.

"You know what, that would be great, yes, thank you," Maya beamed.

Missy and Coraline were sent off with a wave soon after this. Maya truly hoped that this buoyant little mood of the Sanderson girl's wouldn't be crushed by the likes of Lana and Piper.

While Maya had been seeing to the books with Missy, Lucas had been working to sort of just get everything in a position where they could then open the boxes they meant to open first, while the others would be kept out of the way. Depending on how everything else shaped up, they could then open those last boxes at their leisure.

It was easy work, heavy at times but nothing he couldn't manage. Mostly, it kept him busy, which was good. Busy meant something to focus on, and he kind of needed that right now.

If he was honest, the false alarm had rattled him more than he'd expected it might. He'd read about those, and he understood what they were and what they weren't. But then one of them had happened, and just… Seeing Maya in pain, not even a huge pain as the actual delivery was going to be, but still more than he had yet to witness, it had pulled everything into alignment. The birth was getting closer and closer now, and with it came potential… for good and for ill, too. It had been easy up to now to picture that day, imagine himself holding her hand, encouraging her, as she breathed, and she pushed, and then… then there would be the sounds of a baby's cries, and they would put the little guy on her chest, and they would welcome him, and everything would be wonderful. Maybe that was self-preservation more than anything, stopping either of them from considering the other things that could happen. The baby could be in distress, they might need to cut him out of her, something could be really wrong with him, or with Maya, or both. Something… he could lose them…

He knew that he wasn't helping any of them by sinking down that line of thought, but he couldn't help himself. He couldn't bear the thought, he…

"Hey… Missy just left, are you hungry? There's… a lot of options in the fridge and I'm feeling a bit more energetic than this morning, I can make you something." Lucas looked up from his stack of boxes. Maya stood there, smiling back at him.

"I can do it," he went over to her, looping his arms around her waist. She looked down, amused as ever by how her belly bumped into him. "I'll make us something, yeah?" Maya looked back up at him now, really looked at him, with that quiet observation of hers.

"What's the matter?" she asked, reaching up to touch his cheek. He leaned into the touch but he shook his head, didn't want to get into it. He didn't have to though. She could see it in his eyes. "That really freaked you out this morning, huh?" He let het a breath, unable to meet her eye. "Hey…" she tapped his cheek with her fingers, gave his ear a light flick.

"Ow," he complained flatly, even as he smiled.

"That's what you get for ignoring me," she 'scolded' him. "I'm okay, Lucas. We're both okay, me and the sprout." He sighed, looking at her, trying to pull in that confidence she had, to let it echo on to him, too. He just felt so helpless at the thought that anything could ever happen, to either of them.

"Can you promise me you'll stay that way?" he asked, in such a way that she'd know that they both knew the answer to this. She bowed her head now, and he lowered his until their foreheads could meet.

"Who can promise anything ever?" she spoke after a while. "The only certainty I know in this world, here and now, is that I love you, and I love him," she indicated her belly. "And that you feel the same." He absolutely did, and he said it even if he didn't need to. "I'm scared, too, you know that. There's so much out there for us to read about, hear about, and it's one thing to get informed, but… mostly it just puts ideas in your head you'd much prefer not to have."

"Yeah…" he frowned. In one of his many information deep dives, he'd ended up on a trail of so many things that could go wrong, the closer they got to her due date. He wanted to know all the signs, all the ways he could help if something went wrong. And then this morning, something _had_ happened, even if it had turned out to be a false alarm… and he'd been useless.

"Lucas?" Maya asked after they'd trailed into silence again. He looked up at her. There was something serious in her eyes, and he didn't think he'd like what she had to say next. "I need you to let me say this once, okay? I know your instinct is to brush it off, not to get into it, but _I_ need to say it, and I need to know that you understand, and that you'll hear me, okay?" He knew what she was going to say, and she was right, he didn't want her to say the words, because once she did, once he agreed, if he agreed, then he'd be bound to them. "Okay?" she asked again.

"Okay," he repeated, his voice barely audible. Maya took a breath, soaking up comfort and courage from the feel of his arms around her. She didn't want to say those words either, he knew. But they were important enough that they made her discomfort insignificant.

"If… If something goes wrong, when the baby comes… If it gets really bad, and… and they have to choose, between him and me…" She was staring him right in the eyes, and he could tell she was on the verge of tears. "You tell them, you make sure that they help him first, that they do everything to save our son." He was moving right now. Their sprout. Lucas could feel him, with her belly there between them. It made him start to tear up along with her. "Say it…" she insisted, her voice softer now. "Please…"

"Him first…" He said it. His voice strained against it but he said it. After he did, Maya tilted her head and kissed him. He kissed her back, holding her close. This was the certainty, right here. He loved her, he loved them both. As for the rest… He could only put his faith in hope.

"Can we pretend that tomorrow is our real first day?" Maya asked after the kiss parted. It brought a small laugh out of him, beyond all expectations. That was Maya right there, her power.

"We absolutely can."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	35. I Dreamed of You

_Chapter 35_  
_I Dreamed of You_

Maya and Lucas only had a few days, not even a handful, under their belts as far as living in their house, but somehow it was already getting to feel different. It was more theirs now than it had been since the day Pappy Joe had put the keys in Lucas' hands two years ago. They weren't done settling in, not by a long shot, but it couldn't be denied that already the place had a new feel. They were home, and in all of two weeks…

"I know I complain sometimes about how big I've gotten…" Maya declared as they got dressed that morning. Lucas made a noise that sounded a whole lot like 'sometimes?' and a snort. "_Anyway_," Maya squinted at him before looking back down at herself, at her belly poking out of her half buttoned shirt. "I… I'm going to miss this… me and him together." She looked back, feeling Lucas was looking at her now.

"I am, too," he admitted. After a moment, Maya moved to the dresser, picking up her camera and bringing it over to him.

"Want to play photographer?" she asked, smiling.

He smiled back, taking the camera from her. He would help her immortalize this moment in time… any day and every day until their son was born. She had really reached new heights of beauty in the past seven months. He couldn't explain it, she'd just become something more, and his heart responded to it like magnetism. And now she stood there, posing for him, showing off that bump, and he was feeling it all over again.

"Let me see," she moved closer to see the screen as he cycled through the pictures. "Oh, you did so good, wow," she beamed, leaning her head to his arm for a moment. "This one…" she took the camera from him to get a better look. It was like the sun had moved at just the right time when he'd clicked, and it had just sort of illuminated the curve of her body in such a way… It was everything she could have hoped for.

"Where are you going?" Lucas asked when she started out toward the hall with the camera.

"I just need a print real quick, the printer's downstairs," she replied. He cleared his throat, nodding down at her. She looked at herself and moved to the bed, grabbing her pants. "I'll put them on while I wait," she held the pants up and left the room.

"We have to be at my parents' in a half hour!" he called out as a reminder.

"I'm multitasking!" she called back. "And you need to find the thingy!"

"The…" he muttered to himself, not recalling, then… "Oh, the thingy… right…" he scanned the room. "Where is it?" he asked, moving into the hall. Maya was very carefully making her way down the stairs. She stopped and turned to look at him.

"If I knew…" she shrugged.

"Right," Lucas sighed. There were only so many places, right? And in all their unpacking, if they hadn't come across it yet, then 'in a box' was a fair shot. They had some of those upstairs, downstairs… _Where would it have ended up…_ "Basement," he finally decided, quickly finishing up with getting dressed before bolting down the stairs, pausing to watch as Maya stood by her photo printer, tugging on her pants, and then continuing toward the basement.

He wasn't even hurrying, or skipping steps, he just sort of… overshot. About four steps away from the bottom, his foot had missed one step and gone for the next, and the unexpected drop had sent him to follow his unfortunate foot. He crashed and, at once, felt something snap somewhere in his foot. He didn't cry out so much because of the pain – though there was some of that – but more for the surprise of the fall.

Either way, Maya was upstairs, buttoning up her shirt now that she had her pants on good, when she heard the sounds from below and she moved to the basement door at once.

"Lucas?" she called, looking down. He was sitting on the ground, grunting and inspecting his foot. "Are you okay?"

"I missed the step," he gestured to the stairs. "Think I broke a toe or three." She made her way down, slowly, until she reached him.

"Is it just your foot?" she asked, sitting on the bottom steps.

"Yeah, yeah," he assured her. He flexed his knee as proof.

"What do you want me to do?" She wasn't comfortable driving anymore, and with his foot he wasn't about to get into the driver's seat, especially with her in the car.

"Call around to the neighbors, I guess, see if any of them can drive us to the hospital, then my dad can get us from there," he sighed.

"Your mom's going to _love_ that," Maya chuckled, getting back up and heading out of the basement.

"Yeah, I'll bet," Lucas shook his head. He hadn't even tried to get up just yet, because in his head he could just hear his mother's voice telling him not to move, asking if he'd hit his head, over and over… He hadn't, but she'd want to just be sure, which would take a bit more confirmation than that.

After a minute, he'd had enough of sitting there like he was in any distress when he really wasn't. He could get himself back up, one foot or two. Once he'd achieved that, hopping until he could hold on to the staircase rails, he let out a breath like 'there, I did that.'

"Did you get anyone?" Lucas called up. "Maya?"

"Mitch Sanderson… He's on his way…" he finally heard her respond. There was something odd about her voice.

"Maya…" he started to ask. Then he had the thought, but… no, not now… He looked at his foot. _No, not now…_ "You're not…"

"Oh, I big time am, Huckleberry…" she informed him. At once he started hopping his way up the steps. "Do not break your neck, I swear to…"

"I won't, I won't," he promised, filled with new energy. He couldn't even feel pain anymore.

Climbing the last step and leaving the basement, he spotted her, in the kitchen, sitting on one of the chairs, phone still in hand.

"Stay there," she held up a finger without looking up, keeping concentrated on whatever she was trying to control, before pointing to the ground.

"Right… o-okay…" he blinked before looking back at her. "Maya…" She finally turned her head and looked at him, a bewildered little smile on her face. He smiled back. This was it… their baby boy, their sprout was on his way…

"Two strikes on your mom today, first your foot, then no Junebug," she waved to the calendar on the wall. Today was May 31st. "I love your mom, but I am _not_ going to stay in labor until after midnight if I can help it."

"I think she'll get over it," Lucas pointed out, laughing.

"Fair enough…" Maya breathed, running her hand along the curve of her belly, again and again… _Hold on, Sprout, not just yet…_

When Mitch Sanderson showed up two minutes later, daughter Missy in tow, the surprise on his face was priceless. Here he'd come to help someone with a couple broken toes, and suddenly there were broken toes and a woman in labor.

Missy had been dispatched to run upstairs and get Maya's bag, her sandals, and Lucas' shoes. He wasn't even going to try and put on the right one on, but just in case… In the meantime, Mitch had helped Maya to his car, while Lucas hopped his way after them. The Sandersons hopped into the car, and they were off.

"Hey…" Maya breathed, holding out her hand. Lucas took it in his own and she squeezed. _Here we go…_ He kissed her fingers. _Here we go…_ "Can you call my mom?" she passed him her phone.

"Yeah… yeah…" he blinked. For a moment he had forgotten about anything or anyone outside this car. He dialled the Hunter Hart house and was answered…

"Hi, Maya!"

"Hey, Gracie, it's Lucas," he told the almost four-year-old. "Is your mommy there?"

"Upstairs," the girl replied.

"What about your daddy?"

"Yeah! Daaaaaddy!" she 'shouted,' which for Gracie was more like a normal volume. Seconds later, Shawn came on the line.

"Hello?" he answered, sounding like he had just been presented a phone with no idea who was on the other end of the call.

"Maya's gone into labor, we're on our way to the hospital," he cut to the chase.

"Are you sure? Is it really…"

"Completely sure, yeah," Lucas turned to look at his fiancée, who was squeezing his hand real hard at the moment, focusing through whatever she was feeling. Right now, it made his foot feel like nothing by comparison.

"How's she doing?" Shawn asked, sounding like he was running off somewhere. Lucas suspected he was heading upstairs to find Katy.

"So far so good, right?" Lucas looked to Maya. She just held up her thumb, lips pressed together like she didn't trust what would come out otherwise. "Yeah…"

"We'll meet you at the hospital."

After he'd hung up with Shawn, Lucas took a breath, dialling his parents' house. He had a good idea how each of his parents would react to the news, and he was hoping for his father to be the one to…

"Oh, Maya, hello, are you two on your way?" Melinda Friar asked. Lucas closed his eyes.

"Hey, Mom, it's me, I…" He didn't have to say it. Somehow, his using Maya's phone to call them could only mean one thing: her grandson was coming.

She gave out such a loud little cry that Lucas had to pull the phone from his ear, Missy Sanderson turned back in her seat, and Maya flinched.

"Mom, Mom!" Lucas called to her to get her back.

"Hand her over," Maya told him. He looked at her. She just clicked her fingers, insisting. He passed her the phone. "Melinda!"

"Sweetheart…" her future mother-in-law's voice returned, just a bit breathless. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know, I've been better…" Maya chuckled. Her face in no way matched with that sentiment, "Anyway, here's Lucas back, see you at the hospital." She nearly tossed the phone back, bowing her head and breathing as she did.

"Hey… So, yeah, we're on our way…"

"You're not on the phone while you're driving, are you?" his mother swung right past joy into apprehension. "Lucas Thomas Friar, don't think just because you're about to be someone's daddy that I'm going to stop being your mama…"

"No, no, I'm not, I promise. Mr. Sanderson is driving us. Say hi, Mitch?"

"Morning, Mel!" Missy's father called from the front. They had met plenty of times over the years, more so in the time when Pappy Joe lived out on the lane.

"Hi!" Missy chimed in, because she wanted to be acknowledged, too.

"And Missy's here, too," Lucas nodded. "See you at the hospital, okay?"

"Yes, okay, we're on our way," Melinda told him, back on the joy train.

"Mom, just don't buy out the florists and the balloon people, alright?" She laughed this off before hanging up. Lucas turned to Maya.

"Oh, you know she will," Maya told him, leaning into the seat. "You have to call Riley now, she'll take care of everyone else and… oh… my dad, Air Zvolensky…"

"On it, on it," Lucas got back to dialling.

The ride was mostly a blur of phone calls and breathing and pain, mixed in with just enough of that bewilderment over the realization that they were about to be parents, that they could soon be holding their baby in their arms. Then, all of a sudden, they were pulling up to the hospital, the car came to a stop, and Missy was dispatched to flag down someone and tell them they needed two wheelchairs and why.

"You need to get your foot looked at," Maya told Lucas.

"No," he shook his head. "Not leaving you."

"This could be hours. I won't be alone and…"

"Maya…"

"Do you want me to be worried for anything I don't need to be worried for right now?" she stared him down. No one was going to argue with her today.

"I'm getting back to you as fast as I can," he vowed.

"Not doubting it for a second," she nodded as he leaned in to kiss her. "Hey…" she smiled. It pulled a shuddering breath from him and he smiled back, setting his hand to her belly and putting in every ounce of good thoughts into that touch, that their boy would come with no difficulty.

"I love you, and you are amazing," Lucas nodded, making her smile even more, just as the back door was opened on her side and they found a nurse standing there with a wheelchair. There was another, not far behind. "Her first," Lucas told the woman, like it even needed saying. He watched her be wheeled off, Missy following after her, before turning to Mitch.

"I'll get back to her as soon as I'm parked."

Lucas made his way along with the second nurse toward the ER. He explained to the guy about how his fiancée was in labor and he needed to get back to her.

"Don't sweat it, I've got you," the nurse nodded, and he gave Lucas such Dylan vibes that he knew to trust his word.

Mitch Sanderson had kept his word, finding his daughter and Maya before they'd even made it into what would be her room. They gave her what privacy they could while she got changed, but also stuck close, keeping the promise made to Lucas. She had just finished and sat on the edge of the bed when her mother came sweeping into the room, Nellie in hand. Shawn was just on her heel, little MJ in one arm and Gracie's hand in his other. Maya had never been so happy to see them, and that must have been written all over her face as her mother came to her.

"My baby girl, oh…" Katy touched her face. "How are you feeling?"

"I could tell you, but I wouldn't want to traumatize those two," Maya breathed, nodding to the twins. "Or… Missy," she indicated her. Finally, the neighbors' presence seemed to highlight an absence.

"Where's Lucas?" Shawn asked.

"The, uh… He's downstairs, the ER," Maya let her mother help her to get settled in.

"The ER? Why?" Katy asked, confused.

"Fell down the basement… steps… just a few… broken toes… Dad, could you…"

"Right, got it," he told her, passing his young son to Mitch, moving to kiss Maya on the forehead, squeezing her shoulder and heading out.

"He looks like he's a second away from crying," Maya chuckled, looking back to her mother.

"Oh, that ship sailed already," Katy was glad to reveal, and Maya laughed again.

It was all happening so fast. One second they'd been at home, having an impromptu photoshoot, basking in what was to be the last couple weeks of her pregnancy, and now here they were. One second she'd been calling Mitch Sanderson to drive them to the hospital because Lucas had fallen down the stairs and the next… she'd just felt something, and then she knew. No more false alarms, this was the real deal. If she had any lingering anxieties at the prospect of being a mom, she was going to have to push them right off. He was coming, their little sprout was sprouting.

Mitch and his daughter had seen to getting the twins and MJ off somewhere else once the nurse had returned to see to Maya. The woman was still at it when the Friars arrived, Lucas' parents accompanied by Pappy Joe. By the looks of them, they had come straight here before making any stops to buy out some gift shop or another. Maya caught her mother's eye so she'd explain about the big toe conundrum while the nurse was busy with her. It would spare her some questions while she had so much more in mind than to explain where Lucas was.

"She'll get him back up here as soon as possible," Thomas Friar assured her after his wife had bolted off in search of their son. The nurse had left the room, leaving the future grandfather and great grandfather to come and say hello. "Now, I will do everything I can to make sure she doesn't fill your head with any stories of the day Lucas was born…"

"Yeah, about that…"

"What'd she say?" Tom couldn't keep from chuckling.

"Way too much about how big his head was," Maya groaned, trying to resettle and get comfortable.

"Here," her mother stepped in to help. "Better?"

"Yeah…" Maya closed her eyes, breathing deep.

Having asked to be put in charge of some thing or another that would make things easier for her, Maya had put Pappy Joe in charge of her phone. From his post in a nearby chair, he let her know that the Houston contingent was descending upon Austin, and also that her father, stepmother, and siblings were taking off from New York within the hour. On Diana Zvolensky's enabling, they would be in the air and then land in under four hours.

"Good… okay…" Maya hummed. One less thing to worry about, that was all she needed, again and again. It would be hours before most of her people would arrive, the ones who weren't in Austin. She wasn't sure how many people any one person could have visiting them, in or out of their room, but she had a feeling they'd be finding out before this day was through.

Down in the ER, Lucas was wheeled out of getting his foot x-rayed by Nurse Not-Dylan and brought face to face by the anxious faces of his mother and future father-in-law.

"Oh, Luke, what happened?" Melinda stepped up to hug him.

"I missed a step, Mom, I'm fine," he promised, waving to Shawn as best he could while his mother had him in a near choke hold. "Right?" he finally turned to the nurse when he was released.

"Just the foot," the man confirmed, and whatever hopes he might have had that the guy's 'Dylan like qualities' might mean that his mother would simply trust his word quickly went down the drain. She asked question after question, until Lucas did something he had never done, not in twenty-two years of life. He cut his mother off. "Mom, I'm fine, really! I need to get back upstairs, can we just move this along, please?" He didn't even flinch when she turned to him, and maybe that was all she needed to see.

"Yes, of course. But you stay in that wheelchair for now. Crutches can wait."

"Not arguing on that." Later, he and Maya would laugh over the sort of proud smile on Shawn's face as he'd watched this exchange.

With the confirmation that the only harm had been made to his toes, three of them broken and another dislocated, his foot had been tended to, he'd been equipped with crutches, and he'd been cleared to return to Maya.

"Mind if I drive?" Shawn asked. Lucas turned to his mother.

"Go on, I'll catch up."

Coming off the elevator, Lucas and Shawn had passed by the waiting room, spotting the Matthews family – without Riley, likely on the road from Houston now – with the Sandersons and Maya's young siblings. When his cheer turned into the room, there was Maya, pacing the floor with a distinct look on her face like she was quickly losing every mean of being comfortable. But then she spotted him and there… _that_ was relief, a little of it at least.

"Can we have a minute? Or a lot of minutes?" she looked to her mother and father, and _his_ father, and Pappy Joe, and the four of them headed out of the room. "Just the toes?"

"Broke, broke, broke, dislocated, mostly bruised," Lucas counted off, locking the wheels on his chair so he could get up, crutches bringing him those few paces over to her. As soon as he was within reach, Maya reached to put her arms around him, lean her head to his shoulder. He held on to her, too, best as he could, rubbing at her back. "Did your doctor come?"

"You just missed her," Maya nodded. "Everything's fine. Could be a while though. I think they're starting a pool to see if I'll have him in May or June."

"You're already over this part, huh?" Lucas guessed, trying not to laugh.

"_So_ over it, get me in that bed, I'll push him right out."

"Well…"

"I know, I know, just humor me?"

"Yes, you're going to own the labor and delivery ward."

"Give me the crown now…"

By the time Riley Matthews burst through the elevator doors, leading the group out of Houston, she came to find her best friend was still very much in labor. And while having her there wouldn't magically speed up the process, Maya could take plenty of comfort from her presence alone.

"Tell me the good stuff?" Maya asked Lucas when it was just them again and the others had gone to the waiting room. He was holding her again, the two of them standing together, which seemed to be the only way she'd feel at peace.

"Right, the good stuff," he breathed out, thinking. "In a little while, a very little while when you really think about it, you're going to have our baby boy in your arms, crying his little lungs out, but then he'll be okay, and he'll figure that out. You've been carrying him inside you all this time, but now you'll carry him with your own two arms, and I can tell you, for having _been_ in those arms many times, it's a pretty great place to be."

"It's like a super power, big talking…" Maya mumbled, leaned into him as she was.

"Don't tell anyone," he smiled, kissing the top of her head.

"Your secret's safe with me, Superman. Keep going."

The next arrival happened in three parts. Maya had just been visited by her doctor again, who informed her and Lucas that, while things were progressing, they were still nowhere near where they'd need to be, so she'd have to hang tight. As moods went, the one she was in after that wasn't the best. But then there'd been a short knock at the open door and there was Kermit Hart. It flipped Maya's feelings right over.

"You made it…" she cried. She was so happy to see him, and she wasn't even going to bother about whether or not this was a new thing for her. She was deep in labor, and her father had come, and she was very, very happy. And when he saw this, Kermit was crying, too.

"Wouldn't miss it," he promised, coming up to embrace her.

"Thank you…" Maya breathed.

Much as she would have wanted to see her siblings in that moment, and they wanted to see _her_, too, after their flight, it was mutually agreed that it might not be best for them to see her just now. Just the fact that she knew they were nearby was already wonderful. And then, as it turned out, the Hart family wasn't the whole of the manifest on that flight out of New York today.

"Can I come in?"

"Farkle!" Lucas blurted out in surprise, almost at the same time Maya did the same. He was here, Isadora was here, and Asher and Ray, and Joey and Rebecca… Like the group from Houston, they'd come in bit by bit, so not to overwhelm the room. They all were part of the second arrival. And by the time Kermit had had his go, and then their friends studying in New York, it had near perfectly line up with the arrival of the last group, on a flight of their own, down from Boston.

"Godfather, right here, hello!" Zay announced as he and Nadine appeared at the door, him with balloons and her with a teddy bear in a Celtics jersey.

For a few hours more, there was a constant rotation of friends or family members in the room, lending what relief they could, while 'the boy of the hour' continued to let himself be expected. The sun had set, the sky gone dark, when finally, just after ten, the doctor had confirmed what they had been waiting to hear all day: Maya was all labored out, now it was all about delivery. She had thought long and hard about who she wanted in the room with her besides Lucas. It could really only be one more person, and it was one or the other, wasn't it? No one would need an explanation for why it came down to her mother or her best friend of old. And if it wasn't that she didn't want to work her mother up more than she had to, with her own fragile little bun in the oven…

So, it would be Lucas on one side and Riley on the other, each of them in charge of one of her hands, and if she squeezed too hard, neither of them complained. Lucas spent the whole time whispering encouragements at her ear, his forehead pressed to the side of her head, sweat be damned. Maya had never felt so much within and outside of her body at the same time. She was told to push, and push she did, again and again, each time she was told to do it.

All the while, beneath the chorus of her fiancé, her first friend, and her doctor, she urged herself onward, too. She told herself to keep going, for him, for the sprout. _I dreamed of you… I know your face and I know your heart. It's been beating inside me, beating with mine… I dreamed of you… I want to know you, little sprout… I love you, I love you… I've got you…_

When he was pulled from her, it was like the pull of headphones, out of a bubble of music and into the real world again. And what she heard, what they all heard, shrill and true… It pulled at their hearts and expanded them, bigger and stronger… And then there he was, set over Maya, and suddenly she was touching him, her hand coming gently to his back. _First contact…_

Lucas didn't know when he'd started to cry, definitely before, but when he saw him, saw their son's face, his little arms and littler fingers, feet, toes, everything… It was a whole lot of everything, more than he could put into words.

"Hi…" he lightly caught his hand. "Hi, Elliott…"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	36. In These Arms

_Chapter 36_  
_In These Arms_

Lucas would always remember the moment their boy was born, the memory buried so deep in his mind and in his hear that it could not be pried loose. He would remember watching Maya as she did it all more than anything, as focused as he was on her the entire time. He'd had one arm around her shoulders as the other felt the grip of her hand in his, squeezing like a vice. As strong as her hold was, as much as he'd feel it in his hand and his fingers for a while, he knew it was nothing compared to what she had to be feeling. He could see it in her face, just as he could see her determination to push through it. He wouldn't have expected any less of her, and still he was just in awe of her. He would speak at her ear, encourage her as best he could. It wasn't so much the words as it was the fact that he was there, with her.

Across the bed, beholder of Maya's other hand, he could vaguely see Riley. She had _not_ been prepared for how tightly Maya would squeeze that hand of hers, and it was possible she might have been biting in both her lips not to say a thing, knowing it was what her best friend needed in that moment.

Finally, there was the doctor, leading this whole thing like a conductor leading an orchestra. Maya was the star of the show in this, advancing toward her grand finale. Breathe, and push, and breathe… Lucas would listen, every time the woman would give them an update, anticipation growing, for the baby to be born as much as for Maya to be able to relax at last. She could see his head, and then his head was out, and a shoulder, and a shoulder again, and then the rest followed… and he was here… He was set over Maya a while, and then Lucas had gotten to cut his cord, and then they were checking him out…

Elliott Lucas Friar, born May 31st 2023, at 10:23pm, in Austin, Texas… Eight pounds exactly, twenty-one inches long… When the nurse had finished cleaning him up and examining him, she'd put the baby boy in his father's arms, assuring him that everything looked perfect.

Wrapped up in his blanket, he still looked and felt so small, but that wasn't what struck Lucas the most, as he held his son for the first time. All he could really think about was just how long he had waited for this moment, and now that it had come it truly seemed to him he'd been miles and miles away from just how strongly he would feel for this tiny human, just minutes into his brand new life. He had loved him already before he'd been born, of course, but now it was so much more. This was them… Him and Maya, together, in this small boy settled in his arms.

"Hey…" he spoke quietly, feeling like his whole head was seizing with the happy tears rumbling toward his eyes. "Remember me? We had some good talks, you and me, yeah? We're going to have a lot more, I promise," he went on, approaching the bed again.

Riley was simultaneously getting feeling back in her hand and handling Maya's camera to chronicle these moments for the new parents, as Lucas held the baby, and then as he passed him back into Maya's arms. They could tell just by looking at her that she'd be down for the count before long, after the day she'd had, the near thirteen hours between the moment she'd gone into labor and the one where she'd delivered the baby, but she was going to hold him first and exhaustion wouldn't take that from her.

She had no words. This was her son, Lucas' son, theirs… They had a child, a real, breathing, moving, fussing little human. They'd made him, watched him grow within her, and now he was here… She knew she needed to sleep, could feel her eyes resisting her attempts to keep them open, but oh, she just wanted to keep on looking at this little guy curled in her arms forever. She didn't have the words to express all that she felt, but she didn't think she needed them. Him and her, they'd shared a space long enough. Deep down, in his little newborn brain, he'd know… he'd know…

When she'd finally had to relinquish herself to sleep, she'd done so only after having passed the baby into his godmother's arms and watching the look of complete awe and love in Riley's face as she held him. And before letting Lucas go on to inform the mass of awaiting family and friends, she'd made one request of him.

"Got you covered," he'd promised, leaning in to kiss her softly.

"Knew you would," she replied in a sleepy smile.

"I love you so much…"

"After that, you better," she declared, making him laugh. "Love you, too, Pops." One more kiss, and one more look in at the baby in Riley's arms, and he stepped out of the room.

For a beat he just had to stop and stand there, like he'd just broken from the momentum of being carried on a wave. Solid ground again, new air… He took a deep breath, let it out. Pressing a hand to his heart, he could feel it beating against his chest. It was all still sinking in, like he would need to remind himself time and time again because it was just so unbelievable. He was a father… he had a son…

He must have looked so much like he'd been lopped upside the head a couple of times as he found his way to the waiting room. Suddenly, there were his parents, and Maya's parents, looking at him with great expectations for The News. All he had to do was smile, and then there was a cacophony of noise around him, and arms hugging him… He recognized them as his mother's more than anything, still swirling in his dizzy joy, and then it had been his father, and then Katy and Shawn at once, and then Zay was practically lifting him off his feet before relenting that he didn't have it in him.

"How are they, is everything…" Katy asked.

"Yeah, he's… he's wonderful…" was all Lucas could think to say. "And Maya did amazing. She fell asleep, finally." There was a flurry of questions at this. How big was the baby? Who did he look like? Could they see him? What was his name? "Maya asked me not to say anything yet."

"Why?" Cara Hart asked out loud what the whole of the eager visitors was likely thinking.

"She wants to be awake when it happens, to be part of it, so… you might have to wait until morning," Lucas revealed. He realized just then that, with everything that had happened after the birth, it had to be nearly midnight already. Maybe for that, there wasn't much complaint at their all having to head home and return in the morning to find out anything. They started to depart, some for home, others for a hotel. Staying behind, as was to be expected, were the new grandparents, Thomas and Melinda, and Katy and Shawn, and Kermit. Abigail, just as much a part of this group in their eyes, had left to take her children and Katy and Shawn's little ones back to the Hunter Hart house, where they'd be spending the night.

"You should go and get some rest, too," Lucas insisted, looking to the five of them standing before him. He looked to Katy, who really should be spending the night in a bed and not a hospital chair, putting all the chances on the side of her own unborn child, and to Kermit, who looked well enough now but had been known to collapse on them before… "I know you want to stay, but there's really no reason to. You're not supposed to see or know anything until morning. Don't you want to be refreshed for when you meet your grandson?"

"Oh, he's good," Thomas laughed, clapping his son on the shoulder. "Come on, Mel, yeah, come on," he told his wife, knowing she'd need plenty more coaxing to accept to go home just now. When she'd finally hugged Lucas and wished him a good night, he had a feeling they'd be back at the crack of dawn or as early as they'd be admitted.

"You call us if anything…" Shawn made him swear, and Lucas swore it. He watched him and Katy walk off, hand in hand, tired but happy.

Finally, it was just him and Kermit. The man looked at him, and Lucas knew he had no intention of going anywhere. It was right there in his eyes. He'd promised her he'd be here for this, and he was, and he wouldn't leave her, even for a night. He'd missed too much already.

"I can get you a pillow," Lucas offered.

"I'll be alright," Kermit insisted. "I've had worse. Our old couch, in New York... mine and Katy's… I slept on that more than a few times, and compared to that, this is a deluxe bed," he indicated the chairs. "You must be starving. I can go and get you something, you and Riley." _Back in that room, with the baby…_ The fleeting thought made Lucas smile. More than anything, the mention of food made his stomach grumble as though to say 'yeah, remember me?' He hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast that morning, too focused on Maya, so focused in fact that he was just now realizing he'd left his crutches in the room and he'd just been hobbling along on his bandaged foot and one shoe for a while.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," he nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem," Kermit smiled that smile that said he was just glad to be able to contribute. "I remember that look," he pointed to Lucas' face. "The day Maya was born, I don't think I stopped smiling for hours… Best day of my life…" His smile grew wistful for a beat, but he blinked and went on his way in search of food. He'd have to leave the hospital and return, as the cafeteria was closed and the vending machines were not ideal for the occasion.

In the meantime, Lucas had returned to Maya's room. She was still sound asleep, which was probably just as well. Whatever rest she could get before she'd have to wake up and feed the baby, he would do all he could not to interrupt. As for their sprout… their Elliott… there was not much of a peep out of him as Riley slowly paced the room with him in her arms. After Lucas quietly shut the door again, she walked up and carefully held out the bundle for him to take again, which he happily did.

"Everyone's gone home for the night," he whispered. "Almost everyone. Kermit went to get us something to eat," he explained, and he watched Riley remember her stomach, too. She was as hungry as he was. "Can you go and wait for him when he gets back?"

"Sure," Riley nodded. "The nurse came while you were out. She said Maya's going to need to…"

"I know," he assured her.

"He's so cute," she smiled back down to the baby. "He fell asleep in my arms not too long ago… Anyway, I'll go wait for Mr. Hart."

With Riley gone, it was just the three of them, Maya, the baby, and him, for the first time. His fiancée and his son both asleep, Lucas was starting to feel that day, too. He could have set the baby down, gotten some sleep, too, but he wouldn't have managed it even if he tried. Elliott was still brand new, enough that, after referring to him as the sprout for seven months, calling him by his name, the one they'd chosen for him after so much search and debate, still felt odd to him. That wasn't to say that the name didn't fit him. On the contrary, he looked at him now and it didn't matter that he wasn't even two hours old and so tiny… Lucas looked at him and the boy was absolutely an Elliott.

So he was here, with his brand new baby boy, and after months of reading and preparing for his arrival, he had too much on his brain to feel at ease leaving him unattended just yet. Besides, he couldn't think of anything he'd rather do, sleep or otherwise, than to sit with his sleeping son in his arms.

It was a good thing that Riley returned when she did, carrying the food Kermit had gone to get for them, because he'd been nodding off for a good five minutes.

"Club sandwiches and fries," Riley reported, as Lucas sat up and rubbed at his eyes before looking down to ensure Elliott still slept, then over to the bed to see that Maya did, too.

"Sounds great," Lucas yawned, like he wouldn't have eaten any and all things he could have been presented right about now. "Where's Kermit?"

"Waiting room." Of course he was. He was going to stay here all night, and no one could convince him to do otherwise. Riley wasn't going anywhere either, and as the only other person 'in the know' right now, it was just as well. She'd be his only shot at getting some sleep.

In the end, he'd finished eating and almost went to sleep in the next minute. Next thing he knew, he opened his eyes and it was morning. Riley was asleep in another of the chairs, and Elliott… Elliott was being cradled by his mother. Maya was wide awake now and so enthralled by their son that she didn't realize he was awake until he got up and yelped at the pain in his foot.

"You, pain meds, now," she whispered, pointing to her bag, where he'd left the bottle the night before.

"Flexing those mom muscles already," he smiled, limping his way over.

"You have no idea," Maya smiled. "I fed him while you were asleep."

"Yeah?" Lucas sat with her on the bed.

"Yeah. The nurse, Yvette, she came to wake me up a couple hours ago. I told Riley to go to sleep after that, she was dead on her feet."

"Did it go okay?"

"Went fine," she nodded. "I'd say it's the weirdest thing I've ever done, but I literally just pushed a human out of my own body not twelve hours ago, so, you know… Anyway, I stayed awake after that. This guy's been keeping me company," she beamed down to baby Elliott, looking like he was this close to falling asleep again.

"Big talker?" Lucas reached over to hold his hand, free of the blanket.

"Big listener, like his dad… and his granddad… and his great granddad… That's a Friar man for you," she grinned back at him.

When the nurse had woken her up, it had taken her a beat to remember it had all actually happened, that she wasn't having some intense fever dream. But then there was Yvette, with the baby in her arms, asking if she was ready to try feeding. She'd wanted to do it before, but she'd been so tired and out of it that they'd figured it'd be better to give her a few hours to sleep first. It had been the first time she'd gotten to hold him with her head feeling less wobbly post childbirth. He was fussing, and she could imagine why. Yvette had let her go about everything on her own, only intervening if Maya asked her to.

After the nurse had left again, with Lucas and Riley both asleep in their chairs, Maya had as good as some time one on one with her son, looking back at her, and much as she couldn't read the mind of newborns, she imagined he was looking at her like he was starting to understand who she was. Whether or not that was the case, it didn't matter. It was her scenario and she was sticking to it. She'd kept him close, his little warm body against hers, and she'd hummed and sung under her breath until he'd gone back to sleep, staying that way until not too long before Lucas woke.

"Speaking of Friar men," he kissed her temple. "I'm guessing there might be some of those out there waiting to meet this one, men and women and children of many different names, too."

"So long as they don't wake her," Maya nodded to the sleeping Riley.

"I'll let them know," Lucas chuckled, more than understanding and thankful to her for having stayed up with Elliott while he and Maya both slept earlier.

"Why does it smell like fries in here?" Maya asked as he'd gotten up and hopped to grab his crutches after taking his pain meds.

"Kermit went and got us dinner after the others left," he explained. At Maya's puzzled look, he explained how her father had spent the night in the waiting room. The knowledge left her with a new lift in her smile.

As expected, the waiting room had already started to fill up with the people he'd had to send home the night before. They hadn't all made it back yet, which he soon learned was on purpose. The others would come later, after lunch, the better to leave the families some time with the newborn. For now, he found his parents, and her parents – all four of them – along with his grandfather and her siblings, Hunter and Hart both.

There was still more to come as far as the Harts were concerned. Maya's grandmother, who had been living with her son and his family in New York ever since the fiasco of the visit with her grandfather, was presently visiting her daughter and granddaughters in Tucson. The plan had been for her to spend some time there before making her way to Austin in time for the birth of her first great grandchild, but then Elliott Friar had other ideas and had arrived early. Elizabeth, Luna, and her daughters would be flying in later that day.

"Are we good to go?" Shawn asked when Lucas came up to the group.

"Yeah, well…" he looked around, suddenly aware of how many of them there were. They couldn't all come in at once, that'd be too much…

"You go on ahead," Melinda turned to Katy and Shawn at this, surprising Lucas for how she'd seen through him but more so for the fact that she was volunteering not to be in the first group to see the baby. That was his mother through and through, wasn't it? You'd keep her in a box like she was predictably going to stay in it, and then she would be somewhere else entirely. She motioned for Katy to pass her MJ, and then, after promising the twins that they would get to see their nephew in a little while, Lucas led Katy and Shawn toward Maya's room.

"Alright, kid, here's the deal," Maya whispered to Elliott as they waited for whoever would come along. "There are going to be people coming to see you, a lot of people. They're all pretty great. I love them, and I'm sure you will, too, as you get older. But you're really, really young now, and small, and everything around you is new, and people might be kind of overwhelming for you, yeah? So, if you've had enough after a while, you give a shout, and I'm going to make them go away. We cool? If we're cool, just lie here and stare at me like you have no idea what I'm saying… Perfect," she smiled, tapping his open palm with her finger. "Totally counts as a high-five." She let out a breath. "How do I look? Presentable enough? I know they're here to see you, so just look real cute… yeah, like that, exactly… It'll all balance out, and how's _that_ for team work? Wanna give me another one? Yeah?" she laughed, giving him another mini five.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	37. Generations

_Chapter 37_  
_Generations_

The door had opened to reveal Lucas on his crutches, escorting her mother and stepfather into the room, and Maya felt a swell of pride in her like she hadn't known she could feel. She felt it though, sitting up in this bed, holding her child and preparing to present him to the people who had raised her, for twenty-one years or eight, it didn't matter. They had been responsible for making her into the person she was now, much of it, and if not for them then she might not be holding this baby boy right now. It brought tears to her eyes, and she wasn't the only one shedding a few just now.

"Hi," Katy spoke quietly, for the baby's sake as much as the sleeping Riley's, no doubt. She came up to her daughter, kissing the top of her head and looking at her with a weepy smile before looking down to the bundle in her arms. She just had to take a deep breath, taken with the rise of emotions.

"Here, take him," Maya smiled, watching her mother nod to herself before reaching to carefully take up the bundle from her. The baby gave a small sound of distress for being moved, but Katy soon had him comfortable again, and soon he calmed, reassured by his grandmother's hold. Shawn stood at his wife's side now, and to see that look on him, of pure and instant love, just as he'd had upon the births of his and Katy's own children…

"Hey, little guy…" he smiled, looking on to his first grandchild like he might have been Maya's greatest creation yet.

"Oh, I think he might have your smile…" Katy declared, still enthralled with the newborn.

"Does he?" Maya asked, looking back to Lucas as he moved to stand with them and see for himself.

"If you knew how many hours I spent just looking at you when you were small like this… That's you right here, I'd put money on it," Katy declared. "You just wait, baby boy," she told him.

"Elliott," Maya spoke, drawing her parents' looks. "His name is Elliott," she smiled, watching them as the name seemed to imprint itself in them. That was their grandson's name.

"Hey there, Elliott…" Katy looked back to him, yawning, his little hands close to him. "It is so nice to meet you. Early, too, we weren't expecting you for a couple of weeks. You're as sneaky as your mom was when she came around."

"You say sneaky, I say eager to meet people," Maya lifted her chin with a confident smile.

"Yeah, okay," Katy laughed, gazing back to the baby with a look like she didn't want to let him go even as she passed him on to Shawn, lightly fixing the cap on his head once the transfer had been made.

"Okay… I know I didn't see your mom when she was this small, but I have to say I kind of see it, too. I know that smile," he bowed his head to the baby with a smile of his own. Watching Katy first and now Shawn holding their sprout, Lucas could see why Maya had wanted to wait to introduce him to them until now. He knew he would have regretted not being there, not being awake, as this encounter happened. Seeing people become so happy, so full of love, that they started to cry… that was one of the most special things in the world as far as he was concerned, and Maya's parents did not disappoint here.

"We stopped by the house on our way in this morning," Katy revealed, after Maya had told her about the night before, the delivery, the feeding…

"Did you bring it?" Maya asked at once. There had been one thing she'd wanted to pack to bring along for this day, but there wouldn't have been space enough as it was, and in the haste of their departure no one had thought to grab it, but it had been important to her to have it, for Elliott.

"In the waiting room, with the girls," Katy replied.

Two minutes later, the two new aunts were escorted into the room by their mother. They carried a bag between them, a handle to each, no fuss. The baby was now back in Lucas' arms, so that Nellie and Gracie Hunter might be lifted by their parents to sit with their big sister, say hello, and give her a 'present.' Really, the object inside the bag belonged to her, seeing as she'd made it herself. The knitted blanket may not have gotten much use on these sweltering June days to come, but here in the hospital it could at the very least be kept with Elliott. Maya had become very skilled with her needles over the past seven months, to no one's surprise, really. And after a few trial runs she had completed The Blanket as she'd seen it in her head all along. It had meant a lot to her that he should have it.

"Thank you so much for giving me this," Maya smiled, looking from one twin to the other, kneeling on either side of her.

"Where's the baby?" Nellie asked eagerly, sounding as though she'd remembered at the last second that she'd been instructed to keep her voice down.

"He's right there," Maya laughed, motioning to Lucas. He came closer to the bed as the girls turned their heads to look for him. "Here, ooh… okay…" Maya lifted up Gracie from the other side of her legs and brought her to her side so they'd both be close as Lucas brought Elliott where they could see him.

"He's little," Gracie declared.

"Yeah, thank goodness for that," Maya lifted a look to Lucas, making him smile. "He's called Elliott," she went on, and the girls happily greeted him by his name.

"Can I touch him?" Gracie whispered up to her sister.

"You can touch him, you can even hold him," Maya promised. Nellie raised her hand. "You, too, Sunny. Just one at a time, yeah?" She had seen her little sisters hold MJ when he'd been a baby, and it had been so special, but it was a whole other kind of special now, to see them hold her son. He'd been given to Gracie first, right where she sat, next to Maya, who could then make sure everything would go well and be discreet about it. They had then alternated, the baby moving from Gracie to Maya, and then from Maya to Nellie once she had come to sit where her twin had just been sitting.

As discreet as they'd managed to be, Riley had woken up to find the Hunter Harts still in the room. She'd been convinced to go on home to her parents, to have a proper sleep, maybe a shower to freshen up. Shawn would drive her, while Katy took the twins back to the waiting room. They didn't want to leave their little nephew, but they'd agreed in the end, knowing it had to be the other people's turn now.

"You need a break?" Lucas asked, once it was just them and the baby again. He was in her arms now, tentatively wrapped in the blanket her parents had retrieved, while the temperature allowed it. He looked good and snug, and she looked eternally happy for it. "I can ask them to wait a bit," he gestured in the general direction of the waiting room.

"And bring on a Melinda Riot? I'll be alright," Maya laughed. "What about you, El? Ready to meet more people?" They looked at him, waited. "I think we're good… Bring it on."

One thing was for sure, when Lucas headed out to find his parents and bring them in, they were ready. He barely had a chance to spot them that they'd spotted _him_, and his mother got up from her chair, followed by his father a moment later, and then his grandfather. He gave them a nod, and they were coming. The room already showed signs of them. They hadn't been here, but their gifts were, as predicted. Balloons, flowers, and a teddy bear on the oversized side…

"I'd ask if you're ready to meet him, but I think I have my answer already," Lucas teased before opening the door and limping his way in. He caught Maya's eye as he walked in, a silent sort of 'brace yourself' which only served to bring her a new smile as her future in-laws came to find her sitting there with their son.

As loud as Melinda Friar had been upon learning that she was to be a grandmother, here she was properly silenced, taken in by the sight of this small boy, the son of her own not so small boy. It was a generally accepted fact that Elliott Friar was one cute baby, though this hardly factored in the effect he had on everyone that day. He was here, and that was enough. Still, in one way or another, whenever they'd see him for the first time, it would be with some variant like…

"Oh, he is just precious…" Melinda Friar had a hand pressed to her heart, laughing eyes brimmed with tears. "Hello, sweetheart, hello," she looked to him, before he was once again offered out to one of his grandmothers. She did not have to be asked twice. Melinda picked him up, blanket and all, and she was just… happy.

Everything they had come to know of her after all these years, it all said in no uncertain terms that Melinda Friar would have had such a large family if she could. Circumstances had left it so that she only ever had the one child, biologically or otherwise, but in return she just radiated maternal energy enough that all of her son's friends had always felt at home at the Friar house. Then, of course, she'd all but adopted Farkle Minkus and Ray Choi as part of the family, one for the summers he had spent with them in previous years, and the other for having lived with them until he left for college, after his parents had kicked him out of the house upon learning that he was gay. Now this boy… their boy's boy…

"Mom, Dad, Pappy Joe," Lucas came around the bed, standing before his mother, lightly touching the baby's head. "This is Elliott… Elliott Lucas Friar," he smiled. He'd never made a secret of his intention to carry on the tradition, along with the others of now four Friar men in this room who had their father's name as their middle name. Still, to finally just say it, announce it, there was new pride in him, as there was in his mother and father and in his grandfather. "You alright?" he asked his mother, trying not to look so amused for how she just seemed to be rendered speechless for how much she felt in that moment, holding her grandson. She could only nod, and after a few minutes more she just had to sort of take a deep breath and remind herself there were others here who'd want to hold baby Elliott… and maybe the sooner she handed him over, the sooner she'd get him back.

"Would you look at this little man," Thomas Friar seemed lit from within as he received the boy into his arms. He was a natural, plain and simple, with just as much excess of parental spirit in him. Maya remembered so much how welcoming he had been of her, way back when she'd been new in time. He was nice to all of his son's friends, more than nice, but with her it was like… he knew she needed more, just as he knew that he had it in him to give her that. It was never in any way condescending, it was just… him… And now, as he held her son, Maya knew the boy would grow up to be the light in his grandfather's eyes as much as he would look up to the man, and rightly so. He and Melinda would be top of the line for babysitting, they knew. It wasn't like they'd never leave Elliott with his maternal grandparents, but _they_ would already have three, soon four young children to look after, so why add one more too often?

On top of that, they _did_ have their soon to be 'live in' great grandfather as an option, too. Pappy Joe was only supposed to move back into his old home, to join his grandson and his fiancée, after the baby was born. Now that this had been moved up, they would have to figure out what it would mean for Joseph Friar, but that was not going to be decided today. Today would be for meeting this great grandson of his.

"Hold on, now, let me sit first. Last thing I need is this leg to give out," he shook his head, moving to the chair where Riley had slept for the last few hours.

"Dad, your leg's fine," Thomas assured him, but Pappy Joe just shook his head and insisted. When Maya chuckled from the bed, they looked at her.

"Santa's ready to receive," she gestured to the old man in his seat, and they all laughed, seeing now what she'd seen. The sudden outburst of sound startled Elliott, who almost instantly started to wail, and oh, how it immediately pulled at the new parents' hearts.

"Give him here, Tom," Pappy Joe motioned to his son, who'd already started working to calm the boy. "Come on, right here," Pappy Joe nodded, and so Mr. Friar set the crying child in his father's arms. "You're alright, there now," he held him close, rocking him, the picture of calm, and soon the cries subsided into small noises and then all was well. Pappy Joe looked up with a smile, like 'See? Not a problem.'

"Show off," Lucas smirked. "They _would_ get along, wouldn't they?" he turned a look to Maya, who looked like she'd had the same thought he did and was now trying not to laugh either.

"What do you mean?" Melinda asked, curious to get the joke.

"Santa and the E.L.F.," Lucas spelled it out, and off the look his mother had just now, they had a feeling that there would be several 'elf like' clothing in this boy's future holiday seasons.

The never-ending parade of families carried right along. After the Friars had finally returned the babe to his parents and gone out of the room, Lucas had once again gone to escort the next group. In this case, he brought Kermit and Abigail and the rest of Maya's siblings.

When he'd made his way over to the waiting room to get them, the four kids had already been on their feet, like they knew it was only a matter of time before they got to go see their sister and her baby and they wanted to be there as soon as possible. Abigail was still sitting, though keeping her arms around her younger son, Wyatt, to ensure that the four-year-old wouldn't shoot off like a rocket at the slightest indication that their turn had come, which soon proved to have been a prudent choice.

"Easy there, you," she'd laughed, picking up the boy even as she stood up. At her side, Kermit sat, back hunched and head bowed as though off in his own world. "What's the matter?" his wife asked, as confirmation that they could go see Maya had not raised him from his seat. Lucas could tell she was trying not to sound in any way concerned, even though her mind was clearly going the same way that Lucas' own went just now. Was something going wrong again, his illness? Three of his kids had no idea about any of what had been going on with him, and the last thing they wanted…

"I'm alright, Abby," he finally got up, and his posture said it all. It wasn't anything to do with his condition, not physically. He was just overwhelmed about being here, in this moment in his eldest child's life, something he might have missed out on if he'd kept to the path he'd foolishly followed for so long. Lucas had already seen for himself just how much it meant to him, with how he'd stayed overnight out here. All morning, he'd sat here and waited his turn, and now… When Kermit caught his eye, Lucas gave a nod and a smile. _She's waiting for you._

"What's his name?" Eliza asked, the eight-year-old keeping pace alongside Lucas and his crutches.

"Maya will tell you," Lucas promised her. "Won't be long now."

"Does he have a lot of hair?" the girl continued her inquiries anyway.

"Not _a lot_ a lot, but some, yeah," he chuckled, recalling his own curiosities on the subject. In that short time he'd spent in the room, just him and the baby and the sleeping Maya, he had pulled the small hat from Elliott's head to find a fair amount of golden hair now sticking up for the disturbance. He'd straightened them up as best he could before putting the hat back on.

"I know how to change a diaper," Eliza informed him.

"Good to know," Lucas nodded.

"Can I hold him?"

"Of course," he gave the girl a smile, which she returned, showing that smile that was so like Maya's… and now so like their son's, though he hadn't specifically _smiled_ just yet. He could still see it. When he told Eliza about this, just before they reached the room, she looked like she was one good gust of wind from flying on the power of her giddiness.

Each group he'd brought along had the same initial reaction when they walked through the door, and this one was no exception. They came in like they were stepping on hallowed ground, quiet and unhurried, as they approached the bed where Maya waited for them, bundled babe in her arms. She was all smiles as her siblings came in ahead of their parents.

"Hey…" she spoke quietly. It was the first time she got to see them since they'd flown in the day before, and she reached out one hand to motion them forward. They didn't have to be told twice. Sam, Cara, and Eliza came to the side of the bed as a group, looking in on their brand new and very first nephew. Maya was forever sold on the notion that you would never find so eager aunts and uncles as the little ones.

"Is that him?" Eliza whispered.

"No, Lizard, they let me borrow another one," Maya joked, and for a moment her little sister looked like she believed her. "Yes, that's him," she laughed.

"He's so cute," Cara declared, looking at the boy curled against his mother like she was so happy to think he was related to her.

"I think if you don't tell her what his name is pretty soon, Eliza's going to explode," Sam informed his big sister, all the while looking as though he was trying to catch the baby's eyes and make a funny face at him. Eliza gave a nod to show she agreed on this assessment.

"Is that right?" Maya chuckled. "I'll make you a deal. You wait, not even a minute more, and you get to hold him second. Good?"

"Who's first?" Eliza asked before she would pronounce her answer. Maya smiled at her before lifting her eyes past their heads to the man just a few steps behind. "Okay," the girl finally nodded, stepping back with her siblings as their father came along. There were tears in his eyes, balanced to his smile. She had thought ahead of his arrival, scooting herself just enough over in her bed so that someone might be able to sit on that free side, letting no uninformed parties wondering why he would choose to sit before ever letting anyone put that baby boy in his hold.

Maya did this now, passing her son in his blanket over into her father's arms before wiping a few tears from her own eyes. The way he looked at him, she had a feeling Kermit was noticing just as Katy had done that their grandson had their daughter's smile. This time around, rather than to announce it to the room as before, Maya thought to lean in and whisper at her father's ear. They had come so far in the last few months, him and her, and it felt to her that he had earned this privilege. When she told him the name, he looked back at her, his smile expanding.

"That's… That's what I wanted to call you, if you'd been a boy," he revealed. She blinked.

"It is?"

"Yeah," Kermit nodded. "Never even told Katy, once we knew what you were. When we were going to have Sam, it almost came up, but it never felt like we should. Maybe this is why," he decided, looking to his grandson again. "It was always meant for you, one way or another."

"Dad," Eliza appeared again, by the bed, like her patience had been spent and now she needed to know. "What'd she say?" she whispered. Kermit looked back to his eldest, who nodded.

"She said that this little guy's name is Elliott." The news was well received all around, as the newly appointed uncles and aunts gladly said hello to baby Elliott. And then, at long last by the looks of her, Eliza had been allowed to hold him, as promised. She was particularly proud to realize after a moment that they had similar names, which clearly made it so that they were going to be even closer to one another.

They had let Wyatt go next. Much like with the twins, they'd had him sit next to his big sister on the bed before placing the baby in his four-year-old arms. He would keep looking over at Maya to be sure that he was doing okay, and she would tell him that, yes, he was doing just great. Cara had gone next, the eleven-year-old looking at her nephew like she would have given anything not to live all the way in New York when he was in Texas. Maya knew the feeling too well for having felt it about her and the others, even her other siblings when they'd only been two hours away.

"Alright, Uncle Sam," Maya had to chuckle when she said it for the first time. "Your turn." He looked so nervous in the actual hand off, which was inexplicably sweet to see, but then once he had him, he was just good. He was so happy to be here, like all the others, though at the same time Maya also felt like her eldest sibling had really needed this, to have a moment of immeasurable joy, after all that had been going on back in New York, with their father, with the illness and the secret he'd carried on his own for a time. He would be great for Elliott, she could just tell.

After Abigail had had the chance to hold the baby, the New York Harts had retreated to the waiting room again, to rejoin the others and also to give the new family a break. It was just as well, as the baby was due for another feeding, after which there'd been a check-up with Nurse Yvette.

"You're starting to look like you need a nap," Lucas spoke after the woman had gone.

"Yeah, no kidding," Maya breathed out before looking to him. "You meant the baby, didn't you?" she realized. He laughed. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Go for it," Lucas nodded. "I've got him."

"Okay, but wake me up when they arrive, yeah?" she pointed at him. He came and sat on the edge of the bed, carefully leaning to kiss her.

"I swear," he nodded, as she reached to hold their son's hand for a moment.

"How long do you think it's going to take before we look at him and it doesn't feel like 'is he actually ours?'" she wondered aloud, smiling.

"I don't know. Still bowls me over, too," he replied, looking to see the baby now slept. "Your turn now. Enjoy it while it lasts," he 'teased,' getting a squint from her before she settled in properly and eventually dozed off.

He knew exactly who it was she needed him to wake her for, without having it spelled out. Their friends would have made it back in by now, surely, but again they would have to exercise some patience while Maya slept. And then they would have to wait just a little while longer, as three hours or so after Maya had gone to sleep, Riley had appeared, informing Lucas that they had arrived.

"Okay, I'll be right there," he told Riley, who nodded and went back to the waiting room. Lucas sort of wished he didn't have to wake her, finding she looked so peaceful, but then there was a reason she'd made him promise, wasn't there? "Maya, hey…" he spoke quietly, touching her face, her shoulder. Her face scrunched up almost at once and she opened one eye. "They're here."

"Elliott?" she mumbled.

"He's great. I just changed his diaper," he reported, which made her smirk as she pulled herself up a bit.

"How did _that_ go?" she asked.

"Uh, carefully," he decided. She laughed. "Want me to go get them?"

"How do I look? Be honest," she first requested.

"Trick question, you're asking a guy who will literally think you're the most beautiful thing in the world, no matter what."

"You are such a cowboy, Huckleberry…" she hummed, nonetheless appreciative. "Alright, then I'm ready to receive," she told him, looking around for their son. Lucas went and got him, bringing him back to her eager arms before heading off to escort the just landed Tucson Harts. "And if you happen to see like… a whole lot of food out there… just swipe that for me, will you?"

"Will do," he laughed.

"I'm not kidding, I will put in a whole pizza _right now_," she gave a pointed look, which got her a kiss to the top of the head. She sighed.

"Be right back with your banquet."

"You're the actual best," she called after him as he headed out on his crutches.

He found his mother in the midst of recounting his 'spectacular' fall down the basement stairs as he arrived in the waiting room, so at least he didn't have to explain why he was hopping about on his good foot. All he had to do was lead the way for Elizabeth Hart, her daughter Luna, and her granddaughters, six-year-old Ginny and three-year-old Sadie. The girls each had something to bring to their cousin Maya, a gift bag and a stuffed elephant respectively, while their mother carried flowers. The only one who carried nothing at the moment was Maya's grandmother, who seemed already loaded enough with the emotions rumbling in her at the prospect of meeting her great grandson.

"How are they doing?" she asked Lucas as she walked alongside him with the tentatively lifted hand of someone ready to break another's fall in case it was needed.

"Great," Lucas assured her. "Maya just slept for a few hours, and E… and he took a break from being passed around from person to person, snoozed in my arms for a while before giving me my first diaper change." He'd done it before, looking after Maya's siblings, and in their pre-natal classes, but as he'd sort of expected it had felt different when it was his own child. "Now they're both waiting for you."

As Maya's grandmother and aunt had gotten to walk in and discover the newest member of their family, it really felt on the same track as Kermit's introduction to the baby to some degree. Like him, they had been out of Maya's life for most if not all of her life, and it had not been their choice, not the women's at least. Luna had ended up pushed away following her brother's departure, and Elizabeth… She had made a choice she would regret for years and years, the day she had backed her husband over her son, and her meeting her granddaughter twenty-one years later than she might have… that had been her punishment. It meant so much to the both of them now that they were able to claim their places in this new family.

"I remember when you were this small," Luna beamed, reaching to gently stroke the baby's arm as his mother happily looked on. "He's got your smile…"

"I've been hearing that, yeah," Maya nodded, turning to her grandmother. She was crying, and Maya took hold of her hand, giving it a squeeze, to which Elizabeth bowed her head, leaning to embrace her granddaughter. "This is Elliott," she introduced him. "Here, sit with me," she requested, and when her grandmother did, Maya passed her the baby.

"You made this, didn't you?" Elizabeth remarked of the blanket.

"Yeah," Maya confirmed.

"It's really beautiful," she spoke quietly, all her focus now on her great grandson. "And so are you," she told him, lightly kissing his forehead.

"We have presents!" Ginny Chen stepped up now, holding out the gift bag, while her little sister hoisted up…

"Is that an elephant?" Maya cheerfully asked, and Sadie nodded with a grin. Lucas guided the girls to come around to the other side of the bed before lifting the three-year-old up so she could extend the stuffed animal to her sister. "Does it have a name?"

"Bobo," Sadie proudly announced.

"Bobo the elephant," Maya laughed. "I love it! And he will, too," she indicated the baby in their grandmother's arms.

"Mine now!" Ginny held up the bag.

"Yours now," Maya took it from her. "Is there food in here? Because I _was_ promised…" she looked back to Lucas.

"It's on its way," he assured her. "They didn't have a big enough table," he joked, getting a smile as Maya reached into the bag and pulled out a wooden box, carved, ornate... It was light enough to suggest it might have been empty.

"Gramma says it's so you can keep memories in it," Ginny informed her.

"It's perfect, thank you," Maya smiled at the girl and her grandmother in turn.

Lucas had left them to talk amongst themselves, going in search of Maya's 'feast.' Kermit had taken off to get the food for her, as he had done the night before, so as soon as he got back…

As he neared the waiting room, he could hear the sound of voices, of laughter… He caught one laugh in particular and it sounded familiar, but also unexpected. When he finally came to see that he had been right, he stopped in surprise and was greeted…

"Lucas, oh, come here, Papa!"

"Aunt Dot, hey!" he blinked as she came and embraced him. Of course she would be here, which meant the Hillards were likely not long to arrive. For now, she was here, with her husband Emmett and their children, who were just growing more and more every time Lucas saw them these days, which wasn't nearly as often as he would have hoped. Junior was already seventeen, which felt impossible, as much as Alex being thirteen, and then were was their sister?

He hadn't seen her until her brothers stepped aside, but there she was, fourteen-year-old Dora, looking around at all the people with casual curiosity as she'd done for as long as Lucas could remember, like it didn't matter how much she grew, she would always be his little cousin.

"Hey you," he smiled when she finally saw him and dashed in for a hug. "Did you get taller again?"

"Sometimes," she shrugged.

"Did you meet everyone?" Lucas asked her and the boys. They hadn't, so he made the introductions, from friends on to Maya's family visiting out of New York. "And that's Sam," he finished off, indicating the boy one year her junior and just now looking like he'd lost all vocal function and about half his motor skills.

"Hi," Dora smiled, waving at him, and he raised his hand in response.

Kermit soon returned, carrying a large bag in either hand, showing he had indeed answered his daughter's request. Stepping away from his cousins, Lucas went along with him.

"I can't wait to get him home," he thought out loud. They would be sticking around until the next morning, and as nice as it was to have everyone here, he really just wanted it to finally be as they'd been preparing for all this time. Him, and Maya, and their son, in their house…

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	38. And So It Begins

_Chapter 38_  
_And So It Begins_

As strange as it was to explain, in her dreams, she still felt like he was in her belly. She only knew this because, whenever she'd go to sleep and wake again, there would be this moment where she would he realize he wasn't in there anymore. And in that moment… there was just the smallest bit of panic, until she'd look around and she would find him, in the little bed next to hers, or in Lucas' arms, or someone else's… Once she'd see this, finally, she would feel herself calm again. She guessed it was normal for this to be a bit jarring. He'd been growing inside her, day by day, month to month, and now all of a sudden he was just gone. _No, not gone. He's here._

And now, they were taking him home.

It had been two whole days now since they'd been there, between labor, delivery, and their short stay at the hospital, but to Maya it felt like… an eternity but also just a minute. She was in desperate need to feel fresh air on her face, and then at the same time it genuinely felt like just a moment ago she had been printing those pictures Lucas had taken of her. But she had the proof of time. She had Elliott. It had not been an eternity, or just a minute. Her son was a day old already, and she had brought him into the world, and he had been met with friends, and family… so many of them… And now…

"Ready to go?" Lucas asked, returning to the room after having gone down to the car and seen for himself that his father and hers had gotten the seat properly installed. Like he'd said, it wasn't that he didn't trust them, but he just had to make sure.

"Yeah, I think so," Maya told him, looking around the room. "Can you just double check we didn't leave anything?"

"I think it's more like a quintuple check by now," he pointed out, though he did it anyway. "Everything's been packed and taken down. All there is left is you, and this guy," he looked back to the baby, presently dozing carelessly. He smiled, seeing how Maya had gotten him dressed in one of onesies given to them by… he couldn't remember if it had been his parents or hers… Either way, it looked good on him, like he was ready for the world. "It's actually a bit cool out, if you want to get his blanket on him."

"Yeah, good, okay," she nodded, happy to do it. Almost as soon as she'd finished, there was an orderly, bringing them a wheelchair for Maya and the baby to ride in on their way out. The man looked at Lucas with his bandaged foot and his crutches.

"I'll be alright," he promised, but then Maya looked at him. "But, just to be sure, would you mind?"

So, he followed alongside the chair as their left their room and got on the elevator, headed down. Just outside the hospital, they found their 'driver' waiting. Much as they had wanted for this day to be theirs alone, neither of them was going to be driving on this day, so it came down to letting one person follow them, which would really have to be two in the end. Zay had volunteered at once, playing his godfather card with eagerness they couldn't turn away. So, while he'd drive the car with the three of them in it, Nadine would follow behind, the better to drive them back almost as soon as they reached the house on the lane.

"Is that right?" Maya looked to Lucas after she'd gotten Elliott in his car eat. He could see in her eyes how she really just wanted to make sure he'd be safe, but for knowing she'd buckled her siblings in seats identical to this one before, it all came down to her being overly attentive now. He wished he could make her see that everything was fine, that _she_ was doing fine, but he knew it wouldn't happen just like that. He had his own load of concerns at being a parent now, sure. Hers just came from another place, and he just… He needed to let her try and work through them on her own first.

"Yeah, it's great," he told her, checking anyway.

"Good, okay," she nodded, taking her seat next to their son while he ended up in the front with Zay. He only had to give his best friend one look and he held his hand up in promise.

"Driving as carefully as I've ever driven in my life. Not letting my godson down, second day on the job." He yelped just a bit when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder from behind, only to find it was Maya's hand, as he caught her smile in the rear-view mirror.

Lucas found himself doing his fair share of looking in that mirror as they took off from the hospital. He could just see Maya back there, alternating between looking out the window and looking back at the baby in his seat. Even as she'd do this, it seemed like her thoughts were off somewhere else. He'd lost count of how many times over the last several months he had seen her with her hand to her belly. After a while, it almost became what he expected to see. But now, to see her back there, her hand absently held to what remained of that roundness without the baby inside, he couldn't even say what had to be going through her mind.

Though their desire to have this moment to themselves would be honored, it hadn't prevented their loved ones to ensure they had a worthy arrival. As the car had come up the lane, Lucas could swear he saw… Yes, those were definitely balloons, in shades of blue, hanging from the mailbox, and the porch rails, which were also lined with what looked like the flowers from the hospital and some new ones along with them.

"Oh, see, I knew your mother had to have bought out at least _one_ florist," Maya chimed in from the back. "Grandma got really excited," she followed, in a cheerfully hushed voice now turned to Elliott. Lucas could just hear him back there, awake once again. He'd been pretty calm on the whole, though they knew it was only a matter of time before he challenged this and started expressing him as loudly as his small lungs would allow.

"You good?" Lucas asked. He'd come around and opened the car door for her.

"Yeah…" she assured him as she undid the fastenings and finally pulled Elliott and his blanket into her arms. Setting foot on the ground leading up to their house now, it felt like she was able to breathe in ways she hadn't done since they'd left here in a hurry with the Sandersons. She'd spent those last weeks leading up to this moment with all these concerns she could never put into words if she tried. It was like she'd been rehearsing all these months, and then, finally… the big show. She just had to get through it, and the baby… he had to get through it more than she did. And now he had, they both had. And they were home… "That's our house," she turned about so that Elliott might see it. "Nice, huh? Your grandfather grew up here, and your great grandfather he used to live here, then he went away, but he's going to come back soon."

"Here," Zay came and offered his hand to help Maya up to the door. The reflex was for her to tell him it was alright, but at this point it really felt like she needed to just say thanks and carry on with him.

The flowers and the balloons outside had more or less prepared them for more surprises once they walked through the door, and they were not disappointed. There were several gifts, and cards, and more flowers and balloons… Zay tipped them off to there being some food in the freezer and refrigerator, after which he looked to Lucas, and Maya, and announced he would be leaving them to settle in, rejoining Nadine, who was pulling up as they spoke, to go on home.

"Hey, thank you," Lucas hugged his best friend.

"Are you kidding? Happy to do it. I love you guys, and I hate to break it to you, but he's way cuter than you," he grinned, turning to the baby in Maya's arms. "You ever need anything, little man, you call your Uncle Zay, yeah? I got you," he held up one of Elliott's hands before giving it the lightest fist bump.

"You two come back and see us before you go back to Boston, yeah?" Maya smiled.

"That's gonna have to be tomorrow, we're flying out in two days."

"Then we'll see you tomorrow," Maya nodded, looking to Lucas, who did the same.

After 'the godfather extraordinaire' had gone on his way, Maya had been all too happy to go and sit down on the couch, breathing out as she resettled the bundle in her arms. The tour was going to have to wait. Lucas came and sat with her, setting a cushion on the coffee table and propping up his foot with his own amount of relief.

"Parent life got us wiped out on day two, should we be concerned?" Maya turned her head to look at him with a laugh.

"I think we're just coming down from the whole… non-stop…" Lucas slipped his arm around her shoulders until she set her head to his.

"Sounds fair," she relented. "But now we're home, so we'll totally get to relax and take it easy," she joked. "You're a totally chill baby, aren't you?" she looked down to Elliott, and Lucas did as well.

"How do you ever get anything done anymore when you have one of these?" he reached out to stroke the baby's cheek. "All I want to do anymore is sit here and look at him."

"Have you _smelled_ him?"

"Why, did he…" Lucas sat up and looked around for the diaper bag.

"No, no," Maya laughed, pulling him back. "Here," she held out their son to him, and he took him. She pulled the hat from his head, carefully brushing at his hair. "Get a breathe of that new baby smell."

"Right out of the oven fresh?" he chuckled.

"Like bread…" she leaned to him once again, now looking at the boy from their new vantage point. "And I agree. I don't really want to do anything else than this right now either. It might be a sort of fifty/fifty thing between 'look at this human we made' and 'wow, my body feels weird right now,' but the scales are absolutely going to tip in his favor once that other stuff settles down."

"Good, that's what I figured," Lucas smiled. For a few minutes, they just sat there, looking at this boy in his arms, who had no idea how loved he was, unexpected little wonder that he was. It took until right about then for the hanging silence to make them wonder almost at once… "Where are the dogs?"

"I think… Missy said something about taking them to her house, didn't she?" Maya tried to remember. It had to have been in the car, when their young neighbor and her father had driven them to the hospital. After that point, where she was already somewhat preoccupied with other things, like contractions, and delivery, and feedings, and visitors, so it had all slipped her mind up to now, Lucas' as well.

"Right… Yeah… I should call to make sure…" he thought aloud, though Maya could see he was still concentrated on the baby, which made her smile.

"In a minute?" she kissed his arm.

"In a minute," he agreed, brushing his finger along their son's blond hair.

When he had finally relinquished the baby, who had to be fed anyway, Lucas had called up the Sanderson house, confirming that they had been looking after Trix and Lou in their absence. He thanked the man, who agreed to hold on to them another night and bring them back in the morning.

"Can you grab a few things for me?" Maya tipped her head back to look at him, standing behind the couch.

"Going by the look on your face, I'm getting the impression there might be more than 'a few?'" Lucas asked with a smirk.

"Well…" she responded, with that sort of voice extinguishing squeak to suggest a pointless attempt at playing it coy. "I mean, I don't want you to have to go up and down the stairs a bunch of times… but I also don't want you to hurt yourself… again…"

"Give me the list, come on."

The 'list' consisted of her baby sketchbook, a case of pencils, her camera, the pre-labor pictures, and some kind of snack.

"Is that all?" Lucas smiled.

"My guitar? Maybe?" the innocent eyes returned.

"Very hard to say no with you and your partner there," he nodded to the baby.

"So what you're saying is all I have to do is hold him up to you Simba-style and you'll do anything I ask?" she asked, and though he would have laughed regardless, to hear her like this, joking around… It made him glad, in ways he couldn't describe.

One trip up the stairs brought her the sketchbook and pencils. The pictures, the camera, and the food were even simpler. The guitar meant going down into the basement, which, after how his last trip down those stairs had gone, was one errand he wasn't looking forward to, but he went down with great caution, got the instrument slung over his back, and climbed back up without incident.

When he came back into the living room, he could just hear what sounded like an escalation of baby noises, making their way toward a full on outburst. Just over those noises though, and maybe acting like a wall to hold them at bay, was the sound of Maya's voice, singing softly what he recognized as the lullaby she'd been working on for Elliott. He hopped along to go and sit on the edge of the coffee table, pulled the guitar around until it could be grasped properly… and he started to play the melody.

Maya's voice stalled for a second, staring in surprise, but he nodded his head at their son, and so she continued to sing, her gaze moving from him to Elliott and back again a few times. It worked though. The 'crisis' was averted, and lay at peace once more.

"Since when do you know how to do that?" Maya asked, whispering.

"I might have been taking lessons the last couple months," he admitted with just a bit of nervousness in his smile. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Surprised," she gestured to her face, with a smile of her own that suggested this was only one of several emotions she was feeling right about now. "Who…"

"Willow," he revealed. "In person up until the move, on Skype after that."

"Daddy's been keeping secrets," Maya turned a whisper to the clueless baby. "This is giving me so many ideas right now, I just… wow…" she smiled, passing Elliott over to Lucas once he returned to the couch, setting the guitar aside.

They spent the majority of the day from that moment on just sitting here on the couch, Lucas holding the baby while Maya drew. She filled several pages of Elliott's sketchbook with scenes of the past two days. His little body laid over hers as he'd been pulled from her, first contact… Lucas holding him, that look of pure wonder and love in his eyes still very much on him now, enabling her to reproduce it… Riley holding him, pacing the room… Meeting upon meeting with grandparents, and great grandparents, and aunts and uncles whether by blood or friendship… Elliott and his blanket… An arrival at home… A family lullaby…

All the while, Lucas got to just hold the boy, look at him, talk to him… He couldn't have asked for more. If their son had her smile, and he really did, he also had his father's eyes. Lucas would have thought for sure his mother would have been the first one to spot it, but it had been Maya, in the midst of their parade of visitors the previous afternoon. And now, looking at him lying there… looking at him and seeing in him the developing resemblance… A little of him, a little of her…

Their first night at home, just the two of them and the baby, might not have happened for a few days if it had been up to their parents, but they had wanted it this way , and so they had done it. By the time morning rolled around, they felt relatively successful. They realized that they weren't too exhausted just yet, which could only help, that and the fact that they were still so focused on this new presence, like an extra push of adrenaline or something. The fact that they would get woken up a few times throughout the night wasn't so bad, going by the fact that neither of them had been so deeply asleep anyway. They had Elliott in their room, and at the slightest peep from him they would wake.

One of the things they had tried to prepare themselves for, in the weeks and months preceding the birth of their son, had been to not simply rush off to pick him up if they didn't really need to. It was one thing to consider it, but it proved to be a whole other situation once they had that child just a few feet away, crying. More than once, there had been a beat of hesitation, both of them sitting up in bed, looking over at the crib, turning to one another… Sooner or later, one of them would get up and get closer. Lucas would sometimes just lean in until hopefully Elliott could see him and maybe know that he was there. Maya, when she went forward, would hum the lullaby.

"I mean, he's too small to know crying means we show up, right?" she'd whispered at one time, turning back to Lucas as she walked across the room. "And… oh, he's flashing that red light on the diaper meter right now…"

Eventually, the sun had come up, and the night was through. They expected the day would be a lot of the same, but they had made it through their first night, and that was something. Now they had a new day to look forward to, with visitors, and the dogs…

"Shower helped?" Lucas asked, Elliott held against him, as he watched Maya coming back downstairs, hair still wet and twisted in light curls for it.

"So much…" she confirmed, breathing out. "Felt good to wash the hospital off… and to not go around all day thinking 'are people being nice and not telling me I stink just because I had a baby two days ago?'"

"Oh, did you stink? I didn't notice," Lucas shrugged.

"You're going to go full on dad jokes on me someday, aren't you?" she squinted at him.

"You know it."

When they got the call from Mitch Sanderson, asking if they were ready for him to bring the dogs back, they told him yes.

"How do you want to do this?" Maya asked. She could remember very well how it had been when the other dogs, at her parents' house, had met the twins, and MJ. It had all been very sweet, and funny, and everything had been good. They knew their Trix and Lou well enough not to believe they'd come on too strong here…

Mitch arrived with his daughter, Missy, each of them leading one of the dogs along on their leashes. They hadn't seen the baby yet. After they'd driven Lucas and Maya to the hospital, they had all decided it would be better to leave this time to their families, all their friends… They lived just up the lane after all, and there would be time enough to get to know the little one once he was home. When Lucas saw the four of them coming along toward the house, he could practically feel the giddiness coming off the girl. There was some of this in the dogs, too, and the closer they'd come to the house, the more excited they both got, barking when they saw him step out on to the porch. They were let loose from their leashes here, and the bolted for him.

"Hey, hey…" he laughed, crouching to receive the loving pups. "Yeah, I missed you, too," he told them, doing his best to stay balanced without putting weight on his injured foot.

"They knew you came back yesterday," Missy told him as he managed to get up again and her father stepped in to keep him from falling. "We were playing with Coraline in my room and then they just stopped and they ran to the window and started barking like that." Lucas looked at the dogs, staring up at him, and he smiled back at them. "Can I see the baby now?"

"Well, Maya's with him upstairs. You can go on ahead, but we're going to wait until Trix and Lou have had the chance to calm down a bit, get acclimated again, maybe catch his…" The ten-year-old didn't wait around for the rest, she was pretty much gone by the time he'd told her she could go.

Maya had taken Elliott into the nursery. He wasn't going to be in here at night just yet, as they kept him in their room, but it was still this space they had created for him, and it only felt right to have him in it. Already, she was trying to see if there was any part of the mural she could work on despite needing to recover some more through the weeks to come. Maybe she could sit on a stool…

"Maya?" she heard a girl's voice and smiled.

"In here, Missy," she called back, and a moment later their young neighbor appeared. She saw the baby and her eyes sparkled with happiness. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Missy whispered, coming to kneel and then sit on the floor next to where Maya sat. She had her hands sort of halfway up but close to herself, like many of the kids whenever they'd met the baby, like they didn't know if they were allowed to touch him.

"Can you hold your arms out like mine are?" Maya asked her, and the girl replicated the position at once. "Ballerina skills," Maya laughed before holding the baby out and depositing him in Missy's waiting arms. "You have to watch his head, okay?"

"I know, I looked it up."

"Doing your research, huh?" Maya smiled.

"He's heavier than I thought he would be."

"Well, if I can point out, you are still little yourself, so compared to me… You're doing great though," Maya assured her. "Missy, this is Elliott," she said the words, and even as she did she had to resist the urge to burst out laughing, catching the unplanned correlation between the names. It went entirely over Missy's head, going by the puzzled look on her face. "I'll explain later. How, uh, how are Trix and Lou doing?" Missy relayed the tale of their sensing their arrival the previous day, and how they were now downstairs with Lucas and her father.

It was an hour before they'd be allowed up into the nursery to meet the new member of their family. In that time, Missy had remained with Maya and the baby, which was more than fine by her, while Lucas and Mitch Sanderson eased the dogs into the new presence. Along the way, Mitch told Lucas about how their old dog had reacted to Missy's arrival into their home. Said dog had passed away the summer before last, which had led to the adoption of little Coraline, but through most of the girl's childhood he had been a constant companion. Lucas could only hope the same would be true for Trix, Lou, and Elliott.

Finally, they had led the dogs up the stairs, which had not demanded much effort. They _knew_ Maya was up there, and their new friend Missy, and then someone else… Elliott was back in his mother's arms now, and Trix and Lou came along with curiosity in their steps.

They reacted more or less as both Maya and Lucas had predicted they would. Trix came forward first, while Lou hung back like she needed to see what Trix would do. She gingerly nudged her head at Maya's offered hand.

"Hey, you," she smiled. "He's not in my belly anymore, is he?" The dog sniffed at the baby boy, and it did almost feel like she was thinking 'hey, I know you,' although they couldn't really know, could they? What they did know was that they had always attributed a sort of maternal quality to the dog, grandmotherly even. And this little one may not have been a puppy, but he was as good as one, and greeted him with loving kisses. Elliott fussed just a bit, but overall didn't seem in any way disturbed by this. And once Trix had had her turn, Lou had finally come along, perching her front paws on Maya's knee as she looked to the baby, before coming back down, laying down in front of her as close as she could get and looking on. It was her way of showing trust.

Now with the baby at home, and the dogs, too, all they were missing was Pappy Joe. He was already head over heels for his great grandson, and he would be moving in the following week. In the meantime, the rest of them would have days to find their rhythm together. Sooner rather than later, they would also have to get back into wedding mode. With June upon them, they were only three months away from the day they'd finally say 'I do.' Later, when Zay and Nadine had been over to visit before they flew back to Boston, they had brought this notion up, and Zay had been quick to check one thing off their list.

"I think it's only fair that your best man escort the little man down the aisle."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	39. The Late Late Show

_Chapter 39_  
_The Late Late Show_

The first day and subsequent night had been fairly easy, all things considered, and the day after that, with the dogs returning, and the Sandersons meeting the baby, and Zay and Nadine coming by, it had continued to be that way. The night that followed though… That was the first one where it really got to feel like their brief sort of grace period had given way to more of what they'd been anticipating and trying to prepare for over the past few months. By the end of it, they couldn't say that they suddenly felt less prepared than they'd believed themselves to be, but it definitely left them feeling like there were just some part they _couldn't_ have been prepared for, not until they actually experienced them, with their sprout, and with a fast increasing sense of sleeplessness. For Maya, it also meant factoring what her recovery from delivery would really feel like.

Still, for all that, it was hard to feel anything but a determination to keep moving forward whenever they'd look to Elliott. He still felt just… a billion degrees of miraculous, just for existing.

Their third night at home came around, and by the end of it neither Maya nor Lucas could say that they had slept more than minutes at a time, and this mostly from drifting off only to be startled awake again, sometimes not even by the baby and more for a sort of reflex like something in them believed they were supposed to be awake again.

"I'll take him into the nursery to feed him, try and sleep a little," Maya breathed, walking slowly with Elliott fussing in her arms, heading out of their room.

"Okay, but we swap after…" Lucas mumbled, already halfway asleep.

"Okay…" she yawned, shutting the door on her way out, doing the same after walking into the nursery across the hall. With any luck, those two barriers would allow Lucas to get some rest. "Alright, you, it's that time again, you ready?" she hummed, settling into the rocking chair. She wasn't worried by any means here. Their baby boy was proving himself to be a champion feeder. She only had to hold him close and soon they were off. "So, yeah, where were we?" she spoke softly, trying to blink sleep out of her eyes. She would keep talking to him a lot of the time as she'd hold him. It didn't have to be anything in particular, the sound of her voice was all he really needed… "Your dad's getting kind of scruffy these days. I haven't decided if I want him to keep going, like what would he look like with more facial hair? I've never seen him with it, but then your grandpa and Pappy Joe, they've been rocking those beards as long as I've known them and they look great. Of course, I'm not kissing _them_ like… Well, you get the idea," she looked back down, smiling as she brushed at the hair on his head with the back of her fingers.

When Lucas came into the nursery an hour after she'd left him, the baby was sleeping as Maya handed him over and stood.

"Fed him, changed him, see you in a bit," she hummed, reaching her hand to stroke that scratchy cheek of her fiancé's, laughing to herself.

"What?" he asked, curious.

"It's nothing, inside joke between Elliott and I."

She'd fallen asleep right about the moment when her head hit the pillow. When she'd wake again, Lucas would be sitting next to her on the bed, Elliott in his arms.

"About that time again?" she guessed.

"Looking that way," he confirmed.

"Right, give him here," she sighed, sitting up and receiving the baby. As repetitive as it could get to feel, it hadn't taken long for her to get attached to those moments with him. "Any chance you could rustle up some… Hey…" she blinked, finally looking to Lucas and realizing something was different. "You shaved…"

"Yeah," he nodded, absently feeling at his now hairless face. "It was getting about time…"

"I don't know, I was starting to wonder what you'd look like," she told him, sounding just mildly disappointed.

"Sorry," Lucas laughed. "I'll let it grow back if you want me to."

"Mm…" she pondered, reaching her free hand to touch his face. "Let me get back to you on that one."

"Right, well, while you think about that, I think you were about to ask me for some food?"

"Yes, so much," she hummed, looking back down to Elliott. "I don't know about you, but watching people eat makes me hungry, and that's almost all I do these days…"

"Also we didn't have breakfast yet," he smiled.

"Also that," she agreed.

"On it," he pressed a kiss to the side of her head before heading downstairs.

"Okay, kid, forget everything I said about the beard," Maya whispered, closing her eyes for a moment and almost immediately thinking better of it. She was _not_ going to fall asleep with her son stuck to her chest, no way. She sighed, leaning her head to the bed board. "Hey, I know you're a little busy right now, and please, by all means, don't let me interrupt you. You're still working out the kinks on this whole being alive thing, so you don't know what's up or down yet, and none of this is going to make sense to you for a little while, but do you see this? The way everything is bright, and there's the sun shining through the windows? We call that daytime. That's when we're awake. Not you, because you need a lot of sleep, and that's good, you'll get there eventually. The other one, where it's all dark, and quiet, and there's the moon, that's called nighttime. That's when we sleep… or at least we do, usually. Right now, me and your dad, we're kind of on your time, and we're not used to it, so we're a bit… different than usual. Please don't let that be your first impression of us, okay?" Elliott kept on quietly feeding. "Yeah, okay, good talk. Good talk."

Much as she would have liked to stay up in bed with the baby all day, Maya had taken him downstairs so they could all sit around the table for breakfast. Lucas pointed out that he'd need to go to the store to pick up a few things afterward, and she could see that he hesitated on leaving her on her own with no backup. _She_ was more concerned with whether or not he could drive there and back and stay awake, but he told her he would be fine, and if there was one thing she knew it was that Lucas was and had always been a careful driver. He wouldn't go unless he was absolutely sure.

"We'll be alright," Maya assured him. "This right here is the face of a boy who's looking to put in a good couple hours' sleep," she pointed back to the baby in his seat on the table. He was indeed giving them good sleepy eyes.

"Yeah, okay, but I'll be quick," Lucas insisted, smiling as he grasped their son's little foot in his hand.

"Still not over those tiny toes either, huh?" Maya hummed.

"Toes _or_ fingers," he nodded. She laughed.

"Everything about him is very small to the point of being cute, it's kind of a lot to take in. Take, for example, his whole head. The ears, the nose, the itty bitty tongue…" she cooed at the owner of those small features.

"For a second there, you sounded like me when I used to give tours at the museum," Lucas pointed out.

"Masterpiece," she whispered, gesturing to the baby, who was now well off in sleepytown.

After Lucas took off on his errands, Maya debated what to do next. She knew she could have taken the opportunity to nap, which would make sense, but now that it _was_ just the two of them, she found that it became difficult for her to think of going to lie down and shut her eyes. What if something went wrong with Elliott? She also knew that she was meant to be taking it easy still, that her body was still recovering, but if she just sat there, she _would_ fall asleep… Finally, she picked up the phone and called to her parents' house. She didn't even know what day of the week it was anymore, and if they'd be home…

"Hey, mama," she was greeted by the cheerful sound of Shawn Hunter's voice, which made her smile.

"So I've officially graduated out of you calling me 'kid?'"

"Looks that way."

"I think I might miss it," she confessed. "Although… I have taken to calling Elliott that sometimes… Can't imagine where I picked that up."

"I don't know…"

"You're smiling right now, aren't you?" she guessed.

"Yeah, let's leave it at that, sure," Shawn told her and she laughed. "So, how's it going over there?"

"About as well as can be expected with a human in the house that's less than a week old. Bet you can guess what the main activities look like right about now."

"Eating, pooping, sleeping, crying?" her father counted off.

"And most of that's the baby," she joked.

"What about you?" Shawn laughed.

"Oh, you know, trying to keep my eyes open, mostly. I'm going to look back on this in a few weeks like it was the easy time, aren't I?"

"Where's your buddy?"

"Is that what we're calling _him_ these days?" she chuckled. "He went out to the store to grab a few things. Baby's sleeping now, so here I am."

"If he's sleeping, you should do the same," her father advised.

"No, I know, I just…" she sighed, rubbing the sleep from her face. "I want to make sure he's alright," she told her father as she looked to her son in his seat. She knew what the response would be before it was said, before she'd said a word at all.

"You're not going to sit there and watch him night and day, and you won't be any good to him if you're dead on your feet."

"Not disagreeing with you there, I'm really not, but I think I'm going to need a few more days before I can just… step back. Maybe a couple weeks…"

It was so different when he was in her belly, he was always there with her, but then he didn't need much more than what she'd be doing for herself, did he? If she took care of herself, she was taking care of him. Now… Now he was his own person, and whenever he'd start to cry or show some kind of distress, it would just feel like… she didn't know what to do anymore, not really.

"Do you want me to come over?" Shawn asked.

"No, no, really, it's fine, I just need to wake myself up a bit. Talk to me, how's it going for you guys?"

"Oh, well, Gracie was running after Nellie this morning and she tripped and took a tumble," her father informed her.

"Is she okay?" Maya asked, guessing to some extent that, if she hadn't been okay, he would have led with that.

"Not even a mark on her, not that you'd know it for how loud she was crying, for a second I was sure it was Nellie who got hurt."

"Oh, no," Maya laughed sympathetically.

"When I came and found them there, Nellie was trying to console her, had that look in her eyes like she was going to seriously mess up whoever or whatever tried to hurt her sister like that."

"The Hunter Hart combo," Maya smiled.

"Seriously," Shawn agreed.

"How's she doing now?"

"Oh, well, she's been clinging to me like a little monkey ever since. Wanna say hi to your big sister?" A moment later, a little voice came on the line.

"Hi…"

"Hey, Mouse Mouse, you fell down?" Maya asked, her voice like a hug.

"Yeah."

"Where does it hurt?" There was a brief moment of consideration on this question, which suggested to Maya that it didn't in fact hurt, not anymore, and Gracie was left to figure out what she might say. Finally, she simply made a noise, which Maya interpreted as 'I don't know.' The feeling it left her with was quick to override a couple of things, mostly the answer she'd given her father a minute ago. "Hey, would you like to come out here and see the baby?"

"Yes!" Gracie replied, suddenly upbeat, like someone had flipped a switch.

"Okay," May laughed, "Give the phone back to Dad?"

"What did you say to her?" Shawn asked.

"I asked if she wanted to see her nephew… So…"

"We'll be there in twenty."

When Lucas returned from the store and spotted Shawn's car parked out front, his immediate assumption was that something had gone wrong and Maya had called them over. Rational thought would have pointed out that, if that had been the case, someone would have called him, but rational thought took a few seconds more to kick in here, precisely until he'd made it into the house and Katy Hart told him why they were there, which was in fact to soothe a three-year-old's phantom booboo.

Shawn was sitting on the couch, holding his grandson as he slept soundly. Meanwhile, Elliott's nearly one and a half-year-old uncle was also sleeping, curled up next to his father.

"Where's Maya?" Lucas asked.

"Upstairs, napping with the girls," Katy nodded. "Feel free to go and join them."

"I'm alright, I…" he shook his head.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Katy insisted. "Think of it as us returning the favor for when the twins were born." She had him there. He and Maya had spent a lot of time looking after the two of them as babies, which had enabled the new parents to catch up on some sleep more than once.

"Okay, but uh…" he looked at his watch. Elliott would need to be fed again before long.

"We already had to promise and sign in triplicates that we'd wake her when the time came before Maya went upstairs," Shawn informed him. There was no more for him to argue here, so he thanked his future in-laws and climbed up to his and Maya's room.

He cracked the door open, finding the curtains had been drawn, the lamp on the nightstand kept low. On the bed, the Hunter twins slept in a near huddle with their big sister, Maya's arm covering them like a wing. Very carefully, so not to wake any of them, he sat on his side of the bed and stretched out with a sigh. He _had_ been okay to go run that errand, but he really was glad to be back, and that Maya's parents were here to watch over Elliott, allowing them some time to rest up. And as would usually be the case, back when they would be spending the night in Maya's old room at her parents' house, when the twins would sneak in to join them, he had his own clinging twin before long. As though she'd sensed the presence in sleep, Nellie had detached from the end of the huddle and rolled around to face him, burrowing herself at his side. Lucas just smiled and put his arm around her, falling asleep in no time.

When he woke up again, it was to the sound of whispering toddlers. He opened his eyes and saw that Maya was gone – probably downstairs with the baby – while the twins remained next to him, talking to one another. It was too easy, and he could barely contain his smirk as he 'roared' and yanked the small girls into a hug that had them squealing and then giggling madly.

"Who do we have here?" he asked, in his best Pappy Joe impersonation. "Miss Penelope and Miss Grace… Afternoon, ladies," he nodded, with a voice like a tipped hat. Whatever distress had been felt by Gracie Hunter, it was a thing of the past, as she and her twin went climbing down the stairs ahead of Lucas, who followed them all the way into the living room. There they found their older sister sat on the couch with MJ locked in her arms, happily so, and chatting with Katy, while Shawn would wake the length of the room with baby Elliott in his arms. He just managed to catch Maya and her mother talking about dinner. By the sound of it, Maya had offered for them to stick around until then, and Katy wanted to ensure that this would only be if the two of them really wanted it, and that she and Shawn would understand if they wanted to just be the two of them and the baby.

In the end, they'd stuck around for a little while longer but they had left before dinner. Feeling somewhat more energized than they'd done in the last week, though not at full force at all, they had settled on to the couch with dinner, the baby going from one to the other as time went on. They'd ended up putting the news on the television, in some desire to catch up with the world after having been tuned to Baby World since the last day of May. Whether they actually paid it much attention was left to be seen.

"You know as soon as they find out my parents were here, yours are going to want to come over, too," Maya pointed out after having passed Elliott to Lucas.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he nodded, laying the baby against him instead of cradled against his arm. "We could invite them for the day after tomorrow, get a day to ourselves first."

"We can do that," she agreed, digging into her bowl now that her hands were free. "That'll give us another free day after that, before Pappy Joe moves in."

"That works, yeah. I'll call them in the morning." She gave a sigh now, like the prospect of this next night coming along was already filling her with something like dread, wondering how it would go. It really hadn't taken long for the routine to become a part of them, unpredictable at every turn.

"You know, I don't even remember that much what it was like, when the twins were just born… I mean, I helped where I could, we both did, but my parents mostly wanted me to let them handle it, which was probably a good thing, when I was still in high school…"

"And you had your own toe problems," Lucas pointed to his foot, propped up on the coffee table.

"Oh, yeah…" she laughed, remembering that night when she'd tried to run up and see to the crying babes, only to trip on her way from her room in the basement. "Babies, and basements, and bones… Bad business…"

"You did that on purpose," he smiled.

"Alliteration queen," she raised her chin with a smirk.

"Right…"

"After today, I'm fine admitting I'm kind of looking forward to Pappy Joe being out here with us. Not that I'm planning to turn him into Mr. Nanny or anything, but…"

"Strength in numbers," Lucas suggested.

"Yeah, exactly," Maya nodded.

"And not that we couldn't have done it without him here either," he added.

"Not at all," she promised, scooting herself closer to him, setting her head to his shoulder and holding her hand to Elliott's back. "How about it, Sprout? Feeling good tonight?" He'd just woken up again before she'd passed him on to his father. She held his gaze, his little eyes open and aimed at her.

She'd spent so much of her time staring into that face in the past few days, and it felt like the greatest untapped source of inspiration. Staring at their son was like gazing into a world of possibilities, a future wide open before them. It was the present, too, looking at him and wondering what could be going on inside his little baby brain, how much he understood just yet, about her and Lucas, and all the other people who'd been circling in his universe… But the future… What kind of person he would be, what he might be skilled for, what he might want to make of this life they had created for him…

"That's going to be your mom, isn't it?" Maya asked when the phone rang and she got up to answer, while Lucas tried to get Elliott to calm down again, startled by the ringtone. "Or not," she smiled, answering. "Hello?" She hadn't been able to say who exactly would be on the other end of the line, but it turned out to be her father, back in New York.

"Hey, I didn't wake you, did I?" Kermit asked.

"No, you caught me right on time," Maya promised, briefly relaying how Katy and Shawn had been here before, allowing them to get some rest. "What's up?"

"Well, I…" her father started before pausing again, sounding hesitant.

"Hey…" Maya blinked. Had something happened? Was he… Was his illness back again? Was he…

"Everything's good here," he spoke again, like he could tell where her mind had gone. "I just wanted to run something by you."

"Okay?" On the couch, Lucas looked back to her, naturally wondering what this was about. She signed D-A-D and N-Y. He still looked like he wanted to know more, but the best she could do was shrug, because she had no idea either.

"When we were flying back the other day, Abigail, my mother, and I got to talking. Mom's been very happy, being out here with us, with the kids. But then there's Luna, too, and her daughters, over in Tucson, and then you and Elliott… So we've been considering the possibility of just… bridging the gap." Maya blinked.

"Yeah?" she asked. Lucas gave her another look full of questions, but she held up her hand. _Hang on, need to focus._

"We've started looking into everything, but before we do anything, I just… You and I have been making strides, these last few months, but I wouldn't want to overstep…"

"Dad…" she cut him off, as concise a way as there could be for her to assure him he wouldn't be overstepping anything. Already, she was starting to think she knew what he meant to say.

"Would you be alright with us relocating to Texas? To Austin?"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	40. Santa and the ELF

_Chapter 40_  
_Santa and the ELF_

It had been their hope that they wouldn't welcome Pappy Joe into the house in any way that would make him feel like it would be in his best interest to turn around and run. That meant keeping the place as relatively clean and lacking in the smell of diapers and any other stench… and not giving off the distinct impression that they were a couple of sleepless zombies just waiting to pass off their infant son on the unsuspecting old man. On the whole, they would pull this off by the time the day came for him to take up residence with them, though it came on the tail of a few days which were not without… activity.

For one, there was the call they had received from Kermit and the news it brought.

She didn't see her father as needing permission to decide to move to Austin, but she could more than understand and appreciate that he felt he needed to run the idea by her first. But then what else could she say? The idea of having them all here, in her city, all her siblings, from her mother and her father, and then Kermit and Abigail, and her grandmother… Whatever her relationship had been with her father months ago – or her lack of a relationship – it was all different now. She actually had a relationship with him, and it was good. He had flown across the country to be with her when she had Elliott, he'd stuck by with them, and it had meant more to her than he could ever know.

And whatever _he_ had been unable not to think about, she'd had her own set of invasive thoughts, and hers revolved around him and his having been ill. He was good now, she knew that, but she wasn't ignorant of the possibility that might change. She wanted him to be in her life, and in Elliott's life, too, and if she had a chance to ensure that this happened, in case…

Without going into all of that, she had told her father that she would love very much for all of them to move to Austin, and that she would do whatever she could in order to help from this end while they searched for a house and prepared to make the move. She wasn't supposed to tell any of this to her siblings until they had gotten to the point where they would let them in on everything, and that was fine.

After they'd hung up that night, she'd told Lucas everything her father had told her, and to no surprise he knew exactly where her mind would have gone.

"Do you think he's…"

"I don't know," she'd shaken her head, truthfully. "Either he is or… or he thinks he could be, eventually." She'd been doing her best to keep that thought at bay ever since that day he'd shown up on their doorstep in Houston and promptly collapsed. She would tell herself she didn't want the stress, because of the baby, but at the same time maybe it was that it was easier to say that than to admit she was scared. And now… Whatever she'd thought when she'd first found out about his being sick, it was all different now, wasn't it? Now she'd spent time with him, now they had grown closer, and she wanted him here. What if she lost him? "This is so…" she took a deep breath, shaking to her head to herself and trying to keep herself from crying.

"Hey, hey…" Lucas reached out one hand, keeping Elliott close with the other.

"I'm sitting out here, worrying about what it'll feel like for me if he dies, when he's the one… A-and Sam, and Cara, all of them, I… I barely know him…"

"Maya," he squeezed her hand.

"Your mom, she can help us look for houses, yeah? She has to love stuff like that… All those shows she watches…"

"We will ask her," Lucas nodded. "In two days, when she and my dad come, okay?" She let out a breath.

"This is you telling me to slow down, huh?"

"Maybe… little bit… Want to take him?" he offered, nodding to the baby. "He's very soothing to hold."

"Yeah, I know," she chuckled, quickly batting a couple tears away before he could hand her their son. "Hey, kid…" she spoke quietly as he settled to her. As much as it had felt like her heart had fallen in turmoil, she'd held that little body in her arms, and she'd felt the warmth in him, and the breath, and it was like a guide to her own, bringing her back down… Finally, she hummed, pressing a kiss to one of his small hands.

"Better?" Lucas asked.

"Little bit," Maya turned a smile toward him.

Much as it wasn't a very restful night by any means, the night that followed was maybe the best one they'd had since Elliott was born. When he'd woken up to daylight, Lucas had gotten up and walked across the hall to find Maya back in the nursery, sitting with Elliott in one arm while she looked to her laptop, perched on a small table she'd pulled within reach. Even without looking he knew what he'd find when he got a look at the screen. Listings for houses on sale in Austin, not too far from their own…

"Anything good?" he asked her, crouching and then kneeling next to the rocking chair.

"I mean, I don't know what their budget looks like, but look at that thing," she showed him one house. "Don't misunderstand me, because I love our house and wouldn't trade it for the world, but wow?"

"Where is this?" he asked, just as amazed as she was.

"Would it be too strenuous on my 'delivery plus five and a half days' body to go look at houses?" she asked with a bit of a goofy smile.

"I don't know, you tell me," he chuckled.

"Might be a _bit_ too much of an ask for a first big outing with the baby," she admitted with a sigh. "Okay, I'm putting the websites away until tomorrow when your parents come, I promise."

The next day, with her promise kept, Maya had gotten Elliott dressed in a onesie courtesy of their incoming guests. They would have found him adorable no matter what she put him in, but as soon as she'd come through the door and spotted him in Lucas' arms she'd given off that happy sort of squeal that translated impeccably to 'look, he's wearing one of ours!' Her arms practically begging to get to hold him, Lucas had passed the boy into his grandmother's eager embrace.

"Look at this little angel, a week already…" she declared, looking at the boy like he was the whole world. Maya and Lucas looked to one another, both with the same thought written across their faces. Had it really been a week already?

After settling down in the living room, Elliott still securely in his grandmother's arms (though she'd sworn to pass him on to her husband at some time), the conversation had kicked off more or less where it had been expected to start. How were they doing? Were they getting much sleep? How was Elliott doing? Was he eating well? Was everything functioning as it should? Did they need anything? Lucas had handled the 'report,' putting both his parents well at ease with assurances that their grandson was doing as well as any week-old human could ever expect to be doing. Almost to prove his point, Melinda had discovered he needed a diaper change and immediately offered herself to handle it.

"I'll come with," Maya nodded, sneaking a look to Lucas. "Actually got some things to discuss."

"Everything alright?" Thomas asked his son after the others had gone up.

"Oh, yeah," Lucas promised. "Trust me, you'll hear all about it before long."

"A mystery, huh?" Thomas chuckled.

"Yeah," Lucas told him, mid yawn. "Sorry."

"No, don't worry about it, I remember how this goes. Coffee?"

"I already had too much, I think," Lucas rubbed at his face. "The way Maya and I see it, we're exhausted from looking after our son, who is healthy, and thriving, and loved… so it's all good."

Upstairs, in the nursery, Granny Mel went about changing her grandson's diaper like a maestro, leaving Maya to stand and watch with barely disguised awe. It wasn't as though she'd been struggling herself. Between the twins and MJ she had changed her fair share of diapers in the last few years, but this… this was something else.

"There we go, much better, isn't it?" Melinda cooed, lifting Elliott and his clean diaper back into her arms. "Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?" she turned to Maya. "Is it about the wedding?"

"Uh, no, although I am going to have to start…" she started to tell herself before refocusing on what she did mean to discuss. "My father called two days ago. Kermit, my birth father." Melinda nodded to convey she had heard, even as her attention was also on Elliott. "He and my stepmother are planning to move to Austin with their kids and my grandmother." Her future mother-in-law looked at her again.

"Oh?"

"Yes, and, well, seeing as they're still in New York right now, it would be kind of hard for them to really go and look at houses, so I was thinking… maybe you'd be able to help us help them?" Melinda Friar looked at her like her moment in the spotlight had arrived at long last.

They had spent most of that morning looking over listings together, all of them around the kitchen table. Elliott had spent most of this time split between his grandmother and grandfather's arms. When Melinda would hold him, she would sit back while Maya handled the laptop, though she would often ask her to wait and let her get a better look. When her hands were free, she would reclaim the computer. Meanwhile, this would leave Elliott in his grandfather's arms. Looking at his father holding his son, Lucas couldn't help but feel something tug at his heart. Thomas Friar looked so utterly without troubles right there, looking into that little boy's face. His smile was a thing of wonder.

Had it been up to Melinda, they would have been making calls and setting up visits right on that day. Lucas had finally convinced his mother that they should really look, take their time. There was no rush. His mother almost looked like she wanted to point out that, for all they knew, they would wait themselves right out of The Perfect House, but if that was the case she eventually decided not to say a word. By the end of the day, the grandparents went on home shortly after dinner.

"You know she's going to keep working at this as soon as she gets home," Lucas told Maya as she walked along with Elliott. She chuckled. "Yeah, okay, she's probably looking on her phone right now."

Proving both their points, by the next morning, there was an e-mail in Maya's inbox. Melinda had sent her links to several properties, each accompanied by a vast amount of notes about the good and the bad for each of them.

"The way she writes about this one, I'm pretty sure if Kermit and Abigail don't take it, _she_ will," Maya declared, showing it to Lucas. "Anything to be closer to her boys," she smirked. "It is really nice though," Maya went on, clicking through the pictures. "Think I should show it to them?"

"Yeah, go for it."

This was the last day they had left where it would be just the three of them. Pappy Joe would be arriving the following morning, ready to move into his room, down the hall from theirs. Everything was ready for him, and still it felt impossible not to go around the place and double check, triple check…

"Should we get him something?" Maya asked, stepping back from their room after putting Elliott down to find Lucas standing there, looking into his grandfather's room. "Maybe a mint for his pillow?" she joked. He looked at her. "It's fine, okay?" she laughed, turning the baby monitor in her hands. "The baby's sleeping, the house is clean, and I would very much like for you and I to go downstairs and just… I don't know, watch a movie, something. There's a… _big_ chance one or both of us will fall asleep not five minutes into it, but hey, I'm willing to risk it, what about you?" she asked, moving toward the stairs and motioning for him to follow her.

"Yeah, okay, alright," he sighed and followed, stopping a moment to peek into their room at the crib.

They would have liked to greet Pappy Joe slightly more rested than they ended up being, but then their little sprout had other ideas. They'd spent a couple of hours doing their best, trying to get him to stop crying, to sleep, with little to no success. After a while, they'd had to take turns at it, one of them upstairs with the baby, the other standing out on the porch, getting some air, a bit of peace in their ears. It was not as they wanted it, and whenever they'd be the one outside, hearing their son crying in the distance, they'd only want to go back inside. And when they'd be inside, holding him, feeling him all seized up like that, not knowing how to get through to him…

"I don't know what to do anymore…" Maya tried to breathe deep, holding him close, walking around…

"Okay, bring him down to the car," Lucas finally decided.

"Why, do you think we need to take him to a doctor?" Maya blinked, teetering on the edge of panic just a little.

"No, no, just in the car, driving around," he explained, moving up to hold her and the baby together. "Okay?"

"Okay, yeah, let's do that…"

They'd gotten Elliott in his seat, and Maya sat in the back with him as Lucas drove. She kept hold of that little hand, sang him his lullaby on a loop. More from reflex than anything else, Lucas had been driving them toward his parents' house, and they were nearly there by the time Elliott finally appeared to be calming down, and they turned and started back for the house.

"Oh… He's asleep…" Maya breathed. Her voice was a little broken, exhaustion mixed with constant singing.

After what felt like a ridiculously tense walk from the car and back into the house, they had made it there without waking Elliott and spent the rest of the night sleeping on the couch with him nearby.

"Lucas… Wake up, it's morning," Maya tapped his arm. She'd only just woken up and oriented herself herself enough to figure it out for herself. Lucas grumbled. "They'll be here soon, come on," she tapped harder and repeatedly until he finally startled and very nearly rolled right off the couch until she caught him.

"Hey…" he blinked, dabbing at his face like he needed to check if he'd been drooling. "Elliott…" he looked over and spotted the boy, still in his car seat, planted on the coffee table. He was awake now and casually looking around, small arms bent together and almost crossed.

"Is he giving us attitude right now?" Maya asked in exaggerated shock. "Well, gee, kid, you're the one who went and gave a concert last night," she smiled, rising to get him from his seat and back on to the couch with them. "Morning, sprout," she kissed his cheek. "Would you like to hear the breakfast menu? We got left, and we got right, what will it be?" Lucas chuckled. "You know, I could go for some food myself," she looked back to him and whispered.

"That menu's a bit more complex, how about I just surprise you?"

"So long as you surprise me a lot, I'm starving."

They knew it wasn't as though Pappy Joe would just show up out of the blue without warning. Thomas and Shawn were coming along to help with the move, and they would call when they left from the Friar house. This left them some time to eat, freshen up, get dressed… Lucas went and walked the dogs and came home with a proposal to hire Missy Sanderson to be their dog walker. She would have done it for free anyway, but pocket money was always fun to have, wasn't it?

"My dad called, they're on their way," Maya told him. "They should be here in ten minutes. Question. Would it be poor hostess etiquette if I was asleep when they arrived?"

"Maybe… But you say the word and I will back you up and cover for you," Lucas assured her.

"So… _so_ tempting right now," she groaned, dragging her feet with just a touch of dramatics when he opened up his arms for her to come along and be hugged.

"Don't let my mother hear that I said this, but etiquette is overrated sometimes," he told her.

"What a scandal…" she whispered, laughing.

"Go, take a nap, I've got this. Really," he kissed the top of her head.

"Fine, okay, okay," she sighed. "Just wake me up for… you know…"

"The lunch menu?"

"Would you believe, the same as the breakfast menu," she shrugged as she walked off to the second floor.

When he heard the sound of the truck, Lucas moved toward the door, stopping to look where Trix and Lou lay next to the low table where Elliott's seat remained. The dogs looked up at him in silence.

"You two got this?" he smiled. Trix yawned. "Yeah, okay…"

Stepping out on to the porch, he could see his father and Maya's were working together to unload some boxes, which Pappy Joe stood back. He might have been able to help, but with his knee he just didn't want to take the risk, and no one would fault him for it.

"Morning!" he cheerfully greeted his grandson, who almost recoiled at the volume. "Long night?"

"Loud, long night," Lucas nodded.

"You go on and get some rest then, I'll keep an eye on the little one. That's what I'm here for!"

"Well, not… specifically, I mean…" Lucas insisted.

"I know, I do," Pappy Joe clapped his shoulder with a laugh. "Come on now, let's go."

So, they walked back into the house, where Pappy Joe took Elliott from his seat and sat with him on the couch, instantly falling into a bit of one-sided conversation with him, which was as good as telling Lucas 'see, we're fine, now go to sleep.' Elliott seemed perfectly content this way, so Lucas relented and went to join his fiancée upstairs.

When Shawn came to wake her sometime later, Maya was surprised to find Lucas asleep next to her until her father told her how he'd been sent off by his grandfather. They snuck out of the room as quietly as possible, so Lucas might continue to sleep. Once they were out in the hall and the door was shut, Maya turned with a smile.

"Hey, thanks for this."

"Sure, anytime," Shawn hugged her before they headed down the stairs.

"Are you all done?" she asked, noticing the others were sitting in the living room with the baby.

"Boxes to unpack, but otherwise, yes, all done," Pappy Joe confirmed. "Now this young man is in need of his mama," he looked down to Elliott, and even as she came down Maya could tell he was this close to going off if he didn't get fed soon.

By the time Lucas woke up again and found his way downstairs, Maya was being treated to various stories of his grandfather's years in the house, especially those years where it was him, and his late wife, Susannah, and their boy Thomas. Pappy Joe was especially pleased to share any stories in which his son had gotten busted for doing one thing or another, while Lucas' father would sit there and laugh the whole thing off.

They were joined by Melinda and Katy and the kids in time for dinner. It was at this point, as Melinda asked Lucas and Maya if they had passed on any of the listings off to Kermit and Abigail, that Katy and Shawn first heard about the impending move. It wasn't so much that they had intended to keep it from them, only it had slipped their minds in all the sleeplessness and the baby things. For a moment, Maya looked worried that this would all blow in their faces, that her parents would take issue with her other parents being in the city, but that had not been the case by any means. Maya suspected, or hoped, that they could just see what it meant, for her and the others involved, too.

"I sent them one of the listings," Maya finally answered Melinda's question here. "They loved it right away, they'd like us to go and have a look so they might put in an offer if it turns out alright."

"Of course, it's always prudent to see more than one house, to compare, and consider," Lucas' mother counseled. "Although with the distance, and the time constraint… I assume they'll be wanting to get the kids settled in before school starts in the fall."

"Yeah, they do," Maya confirmed, even as this made her realize… _They'll be here for the wedding._ They would have been here either way, of course, but now… now they would be living here some time before, they could be part of… everything. The thought made her smile, and when she caught Lucas looking at her she guessed he knew what she was smiling about; he usually knew.

The grandparents had gone on home shortly after dinner. They had made offers to help Pappy Joe unpack but he had assured them he could handle it all on his own over the next few days, so they had gotten into their vehicles and had been waved off by Lucas, Maya, and Pappy Joe, standing out on their porch.

"You just didn't want them snooping through your stuff, didn't you?" Maya 'accused,' looking to Pappy Joe, who gave a laugh.

"Might have been a bit of that," he admitted. He let out a breath, looking back at the house, eyes full of memories. He'd made so many of those over the years. Most of them had been good, wonderful even. Others had been anything but. He'd left ghosts here, and now he was returning to them. One was his beloved Susannah, the other his little Annabeth… They knew so much of the first, so little of the second, and having been parents for all of a week so far, they could feel for him, could sympathize for holding on to that precious short time he'd had with her.

"Hey, you okay?" Lucas asked him.

"I'm home, with family," Pappy Joe told him. "I am as okay as I could ever be right now." A moment later, they heard the sound of Elliott's cries from inside. Maya and Lucas moved to go to him at once, but they were stalled as their new roommate stepped in at once. "I've got him, it's alright, you two sit out here, take a breath."

"It's going to be very hard not to treat you like the nanny if you keep this up!" Maya called after him with a smile.

That first night with the four of them together had really felt like the beginning of something wonderful. They'd sat out on the porch a while, talking about this and that… Elliott had spent most of that night in his great grandfather's arms, the two of them looking so inseparable that neither Lucas nor Maya would dare try.

They'd all gone to bed before long, the day and – in the new parents' case – the preceding night weighing in their bones. By the time morning would roll around, they would decide to chalk it up to Grand Pappy being in the house that they had all come very close to a full night's sleep all around. Maya and Lucas had both realized it in turn, looking like they could hardly believe it was real, so much that they were afraid to mention it too loud, for fear of jinxing themselves.

"Hello, good morning…" Maya smiled as she got up and found Elliott, awake and staring back with what she'd come to call his 'feed me!' face. "Don't you look rested, how did that happen?" she whispered, lifting him into her arms and bringing him back to the bed to feed him. Lucas was just coming around, too, and seeing his puzzled face Maya gave him a smile. "I know…" she whispered.

Shortly after breakfast, they had set about helping Pappy Joe to settle in and unpack, which had taken all of ten minutes to be brought to a grinding halt once they'd found the box with his photo albums. As ever, the promise of memories and stories was impossible to resist.

"Sir, those are your ears," Maya declared, looking to Lucas and back to a picture of Susannah Friar holding what had to be little Thomas at all of a year.

"I don't know, they're kind of like my mom's side, too… I think…" Lucas absently reached to his ears for a feel. It wasn't like he spent his days inspecting those.

The doorbell rang from below, and Maya volunteered herself to go, all the while motioning to the picture and her fiancé. _Those are totally yours._ When she reached the bottom of the stairs and headed to the door, she opened it and with great surprise found herself face to face with her now former professor, Patty Robinson.

"Pro… Patty, hi…" she blinked, surprised, yes, but also automatically happy. "Come in, please," she smiled, more so as she and the old woman hugged.

"I hope I'm not finding you at a bad time. I realize unplanned visits might be a hit or miss with a newborn to look after, but I came back into town and learned you'd had the baby, so I had to come and say hello, and congratulations."

"It's definitely a hit," Maya assured her. To no surprise, the woman had not come empty handed. She took courtesy to levels Melinda Friar would highly approve of.

"How are you doing, Maya dear?" Patty smiled. "You look great…"

"I don't know about that," Maya chuckled. Personally she was of a mind that she looked like she'd been playing pick and choose at her own upkeep, so focused as she was on the baby. "But I'm doing alright. The first few days were a bit of a mixed bag, but we've been figuring it all out, and now Lucas' grandfather is living with us, he arrived yesterday."

"Yes, so I heard," Patty nodded, and her tone suggested to Maya just how she'd learned about the baby being born. Had the two of them kept in touch that much?

Maya led their guest up the stairs and into the room at the end of the hall, where Lucas stood rocking the baby in his arms as he looked on while Pappy Joe sorted through one of his boxes. He had set the pictures aside, likely as a gesture to ensure Maya would get to see them, too.

"Fellas, we have a guest," Maya intoned with a smirk as she stepped aside and the professor walked in with her.

"Why, this is a wonderful surprise," Pappy Joe declared with instant excitement, coming around his stack of boxes to greet Patty Robinson. "How was your flight? Not as turbulent as the last one, I hope?"

"Not at all," she laughed. "Mind you, I slept through most of it. I think there was a movie, one of those ones with a dog, or a horse, that always gets me at the end." She turned to Lucas now, who approached her with a smile, especially as she got her first look at the baby in his arms and became a whole human-shaped burst of love. "I promise I am not ignoring you," she looked to Lucas again.

"It's alright, I'm used to it by now," he assured her, carefully shifting the boy in his arms so he might be handed over to some very willing arms who'd yet to hold him.

"Oh, hello, young man, hello…" Patty gave a glowing smile as he settled there and seemed entirely content for his new situation. Going off the way her voice trailed off on the end, which had become a familiar cue like 'and this is where you tell me his name, please?' Maya opened her mouth to say it, but then she turned what could be said to be a wily smile to her new roommate and tipped her head to him. _Go for it._ He didn't have to be convinced, and he approached the professor.

"Happy to present you with my one and only great grandson, Elliott Lucas Friar."

"Oh, look at that, your very own elf, Mr. Claus," Patty laughed, giving her focus back to the boy in her arms. "It is lovely to meet you, Elliott, and I look forward to seeing what you've got in store for the world."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	41. The Austin Harts

_Chapter 41_  
_The Austin Harts_

It had taken some convincing for Lucas to go ahead and leave the house that morning, and Maya couldn't blame him. Even though she had yet to be away from the baby beyond her being downstairs while he was upstairs or vice versa, she had that same reflex he did of not feeling entirely able to step away. Sometimes just making herself go and have a shower left her caught with this feeling in her stomach like she was rooted to the ground and she couldn't make herself go. It was silly, she realized it, but she hadn't found a way to stop herself feeling it, not yet.

So for him to go off to look at houses with his mother and hers, for what was likely to be hours on end, he was definitely going to be having that feeling, too. She could see it, the way he walked around with Elliott asleep in his arms, his head bowed to look at him.

"Can you stop for a second?" Maya asked him. Lucas stopped and turned to her. "No, no, just go back the way you were but stand still for a bit," she instructed, pencil squeezed between her fingers. He looked down now and saw the sketchbook in her lap.

"Were you drawing me?" he asked. He hadn't even seen what she was doing.

"Both of you," she smiled. Lucas came to stand behind her, so he might get a look at what she'd added to Elliott's sketches. "I'm going to call this one… _Daddy doesn't want to go._"

"That obvious, huh?"

"No judgment here," Maya promised. "Everything's going to be fine. I have my backup. You think he'd be opposed to me calling him Nappy Joe now?"

"Do I even want to know where that came from?" Lucas chuckled.

"The ways were many, each sillier than the last," Maya informed him.

"Well, just have this guy nearby and you might get away with it," he offered, moving around the couch so he might pass their son over to her. The book and pencil were set aside so she might freely receive him. "I changed him before I came down here earlier, he should still be alright. Do you need me to grab you anything? I think I left his blanket upstairs…" he stood back up. Maya stalled him, getting hold of his arm.

"Everything's under control. Go, we'll be fine. We'll just be chilling out here, there may be songs, there may be stories… Once your grandfather gets back from his walk, there will _definitely _be stories. And _you_ have some houses to check out, and take pictures of… for me," she smiled innocently.

"Okay, alright," he relented with a laugh. He leaned down again to kiss her and look in on Elliott one more time before finally heading off to get their mothers and start the visits.

"Your dad is kind of hot when he's being all protective like that, isn't he? I don't know, maybe that's just me…" Maya looked down to the baby, gently rubbing at his back. Elliott went on sleeping. "Is it bad how much I enjoy saying things you won't even remember? Just because you're only two weeks old and are still working out how to hold you own head up, much less complain about how I keep going on and on… I can't help it that you like the sound of my voice, and if I stop for too long you'll wake up. After a while, you need to explore new subjects. For example, the need to prepare yourself for the fact that, one day, when you bring someone home to meet your parents, they will discover you have been blessed with one real good looking dad," she fondly shook her head, smirking to herself.

At the sound of the key in the door, Maya looked to the sleeping boy and held her finger to her lips regardless of his being able to see or understand it. _Our little secret._

"Finally got him to go, did you?" Pappy Joe asked.

"I can be very persuasive," Maya informed him, which made him laugh. "Good walk?"

"I've been walking this area for decades, or I did, until I had that fall that sent me living with Tom and Mel. That was the first time I did my old circuit since then."

"And it felt like you never left?" she guessed.

"No, it made me wonder how I ever did it every day every time," Pappy Joe breathed out as he sat on the couch with her.

"You're just going to have to practice. I'll go with you when I'm up to it. We both will," she looked down to find two open eyes blinking up at her. "Yeah, see? He already wants to go."

"You got yourself a deal," Pappy Joe stretched out his hand and she shook it. "I'll have to keep going at it by myself until then." Looking at him, it did get to feel like there was more happening underneath. Memories, she suspected, brought to the surface again by those long traveled steps. There were things she'd been meaning to ask, things she knew deep down he needed to let out, but the last thing she wanted was to go down into places he wasn't ready to go.

"So long as you come back. I might have to go out there and drag you back myself if you take too long. This one doesn't sleep in the afternoon anymore if you're not there to talk him down."

"Is that right?" Pappy Joe laughed.

"I don't know, I'm not exactly looking forward to testing that theory," Maya informed him. It didn't feel right to take him down this direction, especially with how happy he looked at the moment, but she knew that this was as good of a set up as any for her to broach the subject. "I really love those photos there," she nodded to the array of frames on the walls. They had been selected from his albums, a chronicle of years in this house, and the people who'd called it home or just… a place of safety.

"Susannah took most of those. She had an eye for that sort of thing, you know? Well, of course you know, photographer _you_ are." Maya smiled for a moment, looked down just as quick. She couldn't do it. But it was too late. One look at her and Pappy Joe understood where she was going with her compliment for the photos. "You want to know why I didn't give you any with her in them," he slowly stated. _Her._ Not his late wife but their late daughter.

"I… I've never actually seen her."

"You wouldn't have," Pappy Joe confirmed. "And that's nothing against you, or anyone else. Susannah, she just hoarded all those photos we had of her, guarded them like they were worth more than her own life. She was terrified that any of them might get damaged, or lost, that… that we'd forget what she looked like. After _she_ passed, I guess you could say I took over."

Maya remembered, when they'd helped him unpack… There was one box he had set aside and told them to leave alone. Even when everything had been brought in, Lucas' father had carried a box into the house she was sure was _that_ box. He'd given his father a look as he'd gone by him, like he knew how important that box was.

"Here," Pappy Joe pulled his wallet from his back pocket. From it, he extracted one picture, long ago laminated, frayed at the edges, but overall unchanged, decades after it was taken. The man looked very much like Hank Hillard, Lucas' uncle, and the woman had his ears. The boy looked very much like his future son, and the girl… She did look about two here, and the notion of how she would still have been about…

They had suffered a tragedy, no two ways around it, when they'd lost her. It should never have been like that, and right now, holding her infant son in her arms, she felt it deeper than ever. But looking at that little face, Maya felt that the most important thing about Annabeth Friar was not that she'd died but that she'd lived, and in that precious short time, if this picture was any indication, she had brought much joy into the lives of her parents and her older brother.

"Do you think Susannah, wherever she is now, would feel alright with letting… at least one picture go up on that wall?" she looked to Pappy Joe, who looked to be fighting a losing battle against keeping it together. Maya put the picture back in his hand and he took a deep breath, eyes locked on that small girl's face.

"I think…" he cleared his throat. "I think she'd be okay with that."

"People are going to want to know about her when they see her," Maya pointed out, even as she thought about it. "Are you going to be okay with that?"

"I'll have to be," he told her. "You know, I never really talked much about her with Lucas when he was growing up. He was too young, I told myself. He didn't need to hear it. He never seemed old enough, but maybe that was just me. And now… now with you and him out here, with this baby boy… It's just not something I'd want to put in your heads, or…"

"You know if you just try to keep protecting everyone all this time… no one's going to be able to do the same for you," Maya told him, and she knew that he understood what she meant. Keeping his daughter to himself all this time, he hadn't been keeping people from the feelings it would rustle up. He'd been keeping himself from it all.

"She was fine, and then one day she wasn't. Not one month later, she was gone. There was nothing more they could do for her, they said…" he recalled, shaking his head.

Maya stood and set Elliott down in his seat before going back to the couch, so she might embrace the man as he relived those memories. Joseph Friar was by no means a hard man, but in itself the fact that he let himself be held spoke plenty.

By the time Lucas returned from his visits, he was just eager to be with his family again. It wasn't as though he worried that something might happen so much as he was in this headspace now where it almost felt wrong not to be near them. Maybe that was because he'd been with them around the clock most days since the baby was born, but either way… He was home now, and he felt a weight lifted.

Driving up, he could see Maya sitting out front in the shade of the porch, the baby in her arms. As soon as she'd spotted his car coming, she'd been following his progress along the lane and then up to where he parked and got out. When he jogged up to join her, she smiled, holding a finger to her lips to let him know Elliott was asleep. He came and sat at her side, looking at their boy curled up against her in peace.

"I'm kind of obsessed with the way his tiny little fingers move when he sleeps," Maya whispered, and Lucas smiled, seeing it, too. "What are you dreaming about, sprout? Huh? What's going on in there?"

"Maybe just this," Lucas suggested, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. "How was your day?" he asked her.

"Quiet," she replied after a beat, brushing at Elliott's hair with her finger. "Tell me about the houses?" He held up his phone. "How many pictures did you get?"

"According to my mother, 'a dozen rolls,'" he informed her.

"Nice. Okay, but before you show them to me, which one did you like best?"

"The first one, the one we sent out to your father the first time, was even better than in the pictures we saw on the listing. Then the other ones, the comparison houses… One was really only just okay, but the last one might be right up there with the first."

"Okay, so forget the middle one, pros and cons for one and three?"

"First is bigger and closer to here, third is better located, with the schools and all that. They might not mind having to go a bit further to get there though if it meant they were closer to us, I don't know." He showed her the pictures, and it was very much as he'd said it. There were things about the first house they hadn't seen before, which was to expected, and the third one really was on par with the first, to the point where the houses themselves didn't even feel like they were the selling points anymore. They were great, and now it was down to the perks, like locations.

"Kind of glad I'm not the one who has to choose," Maya finally declared. "Did you send them the pictures?"

"I did, yeah. I figured, since they want to try and make an offer on one of them as soon as possible, it was better not to keep them waiting. The people we spoke to… Okay, the people my mother spoke to while yours and I stood back…" Maya chuckled. "They all sounded like they wouldn't make anyone jump through hoops to make the sale happen, so they could close it quick."

"Good. I never like keeping secrets, even if it's for good reasons," Maya nodded. It was all moving fast, from the day her father had called to mention the idea up to now, and if they wanted to be out here in time for school it would continue to keep moving fast. That was more than alright with her. Now that it was something she could look forward to, she was just so anxious to have her brothers and sisters around her all the time… and her grandmother… and her father and stepmother…

_While I can…_

"Hey…" Lucas spoke, and she sighed. Him and his ninja detecting skills. "What is it?"

"It's nothing, it's fine, just me thinking about my father, and the move, and… maybe what's motivating it, deep down." Her conversation with Pappy Joe earlier may have played into this, too. "Hey, so… How would you feel about going out on one more errand today? Shouldn't take very long."

"What is it?" he asked with a nod.

"Can you go with Pappy Joe so he can get a picture frame?"

X

"Okay, bud, are we ready for this?" Lucas quietly asked, smiling as Elliott moved about while he was being readied for his bath. "You were looking ready to go off to sleep before, now you're wide awake. You're not going to stay that way very long though, I think. It's going to be right off to sleep with you after this, isn't it?" The boy looked up at him. Much as he was still very young and unlikely to have loads to offer in voluntary communication, it didn't stop him from giving enough of a reaction, on which his parents had started picking up. Right now, Elliott Friar was happy as a little fish, or he was about to be.

They had quickly decided that bath time would be handled by Lucas. Maya had, for the time being at least, sole control over feedings, and it continued to be a time for her and Elliott to share and bond over. Baths were not so frequent as feedings, but Lucas looked forward to them very much… Clearly, so did Elliott.

When it was all over and he'd gotten the baby all set and cozy again, he'd brought him into his and Maya's room, where he found his fiancée sitting on the bed with the laptop open in her lap. It looked like she was on a Skype call with someone, and he soon found it to be Kermit Hart, over in New York.

"Hey, Mr. Hart," Lucas greeted him, sitting next to Maya, who looked down to their son with a smile and took his hand by slipping her finger in his palm.

"Evening, Lucas," Kermit nodded. "How's the little guy doing?"

"Oh, well he just had his bath, so he's great," Lucas reported, moving enough so that the man on the screen might be able to see his grandson. "Any news on the house?"

It had been a week since they'd sent the photos, and the next day an offer had been made. Since then, there had been no news except that the process was ongoing. The call coming along here suggested, hopefully, that things were about to change.

"I was just about to tell Maya, but now that you're both there, I can tell you together that… we got the house," he revealed with a smile. Both Maya and Lucas looked like they had been about to cheer a bit louder than they ended up doing, when they'd remembered Elliott and instead went for an expressive but quiet cheer. "If you could pick up the keys, that would be great."

"Absolutely," Lucas nodded.

"Have you told the kids yet?" Maya asked him.

"Well, at the risk of surprising no one, Sam figured it out a couple days ago. I think he was under the impression that Abby and I were splitting up and I was looking for a place to stay…" Kermit admitted. It might have been something for them to laugh about, if not for the history he had with leaving, and how the possibility had haunted Sam more than anyone. "He's been keeping it quiet, but now that the sale went through, we're going to have to start seeing to putting _our_ house on the market, and then packing… We couldn't keep it from them any longer. We took them out to dinner tonight, and we told them we would be moving to Austin."

"How did they take it?" Maya asked. She couldn't help but be worried, either as a big sister or a new mom… Sure, the prospect of being close to her might be something they'd be happy about, but leaving the city where they had been born, where they had lived their whole lives… Would it be worth the trade off?

"They're all excited," Kermit assured her. "Wyatt can't wait to play uncle, Eliza practically asked if we could leave tomorrow morning. Sam and Cara, part of them is sad to leave, I think, but more than anything they are looking forward to being close to you."

"I'm looking forward to that, too," Maya smiled, on the verge of tears.

"When I went in to say goodnight, Cara wanted to know our new address so she could look up what's around it," Kermit revealed. "And she wants to know about her new school."

"I'll send her some information in the morning." After they hung up, Lucas put his free arm around her, bringing her closer as she set her head to his shoulder, rubbing their sleeping son's back. "You know what I'm realizing now?"

"What?" he asked.

"Of all the things I never expected… If he keeps at it long enough, Mr. Matthews will now get to teach all of my siblings, the Hunters and the Harts… The poor guy will never catch a break." Lucas laughed. The more she thought about it, the happier she looked. It was like, even though they had been looking for houses, and _at_ houses, and hearing about the whole process, it had not felt entirely real to her until it was official. And now that it was… She was overjoyed.

"Do you think it would be crazy to have them just… fly the kids out ahead of time, while they're finishing up with the packing? Maybe just Eliza and Wyatt at first, Sam and Cara whenever… It might be too much, with Elliott, and me going back to work in a couple days…"

"Oh…" she blinked. Given a couple more minutes she would probably have had the same idea, but he was right. It would have been so easy to jump all in, put the idea to her father and Abigail… But they had Elliott to think about, and how much looking after him could be an all-consuming kind of thing. Would they really be able to look after a newborn, _and_ a four-year-old, _and_ an eight-year-old? They wanted more kids, they would _have_ more kids to handle at one time, but by then they would have been through this before, they would know what they were in for… hopefully…

"You want to do it, don't you?" Lucas guessed.

"You know I do," she nodded. "But, well…" she brushed at their son's hair. "Where would we even put them?"

"We can get something set up in the nursery. It's not like Elliott's actually staying in there yet, so it could be space for them, for a few weeks. And we're not alone. You know that even if we don't ask for it, your parents will want to pitch in, and mine, too, and the Matthews…"

"Okay, let's just…" Maya pulled away in order to sit up straight. "If we take him out of the equation," she indicated the baby, "We would do this, without question."

"We would," Lucas agreed.

"There's no taking him out of the equation though, not when he's basically… the whole thing, most of the time."

"He is that, yes," he looked down to the sleeping babe and his dreaming fingers in flex.

"But they're family, and this would help them, and… they'd be thrilled to be here, wouldn't they?" she couldn't help but smile.

"Uncle Wyatt and the Lizard? They'd be lining up to change his diapers."

"How fast can we get them here?" Maya asked with a straight face before bursting into laughter she tried to muffle, so not to wake the baby. "So… We're doing this?"

"A little preview of things to come?" he nodded. She leaned back in and kissed him.

"Couldn't have asked for a better partner in accelerated parenting."

The next morning, they would call Kermit again, and they would present their idea, to host the littler kids first, and then in due time, possibly the older ones, too, ahead of the move, which would likely take place at the latest in early August. As expected, there was resistance, not so much because they didn't believe that Maya and Lucas would be able to look after them properly, but because they didn't want to impose upon them, what with the baby and all. They had pressed on it though, insisting that they had thought this through, and they wanted to do it. So, it was agreed. Eliza and Wyatt would be flown out the following week. It would give the two of them time to say goodbye to their old house, and see their belongings packed up, and it would give Maya and Lucas the time to prepare for their arrival.

"You realize that, by the time they come down here, Elliott will be one month old already?" Lucas asked Maya after they'd hung up. She looked at him like with a bit of a trembling face, hit with the thought that their baby boy was so close to hitting another milestone.

"You had to say that, didn't you?"

"I know, I know, I regretted it as soon as I said it…"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	42. Taking Roots

_Chapter 42_  
_Taking Roots_

"My good sir, those are some kicky legs… Oh, yeah, some real stompers right here… I remember when you used to take those and just _kick_ me from the inside… Tiny, strong legs," Maya beamed, as she worked to get Elliott dressed up. Her son was being extremely active today, like he knew they had visitors coming.

June was on its last days already, and neither Maya nor Lucas knew where the time could possibly have gone, that their baby boy was nearing on one month of being alive already. They could see it though, in him. These last few weeks had allowed Elliott to grow just enough that, though still fairly small, he didn't look nearly so new all of a sudden. He was doing wonderful, as he'd done from the start. All his check-ups so far had come through with glowing assurances from the doctor. He was right on track to go from a baby into a lively child, and it left his young parents with both relief and pride.

Little as they would go thinking that they were now pros, they could look back now, having attended to their boy for four weeks now, and feel just a bit more secure in their abilities to keep at it. They had been determined, before he was born, that they could do this, that they would be able to tend to him as they needed to. And then he'd been born, and suddenly it was less 'we can do this' and more 'we _can_ do this, right?' It didn't seem to matter anymore that they had both looked after newborn babies before. This one was theirs.

Just a few days ago, they'd had their first proper panic in the middle of the night, believing that something was wrong with the baby. They'd been this close to taking him to the hospital, not needing to change out of PJs because they were in fact wearing normal clothes they'd fallen asleep in. But then Pappy Joe had finally been awakened, and he had come to take a look at his great grandson, with the calm of one who was not new to anything like this, and he had both promised and proven that there was no cause for alarm. After one strange and sleepless night, Elliott was good as ever and now sleeping soundly in his still frightened mother's arms.

"Starting to really get how our parents felt after the accident," Lucas had been right there at her side, dead tired as she was and still sort of wired. Maya had looked at him, at that small crease in his brow, and she could see it. He looked so much like she remembered his father looking that night in the ER.

"Yeah…" she'd replied with a mirthless laugh, her hand set to the baby's back, that she might feel the breath in him. "And it wasn't even anything serious this time, what's it going to be like when it is?"

Their night of reality checks had taken a bit of time in resolving itself out of their systems, but it was done now, in the past. And today… Today was going to be a good day.

"What do you think? Does this say 'I may be meeting some of my future best friends today'?" Maya asked, coming down the stairs with Elliott once she'd finished dressing him. "What are you doing?" she smirked, finding little of her future husband except what she could still see of him as he was kneeling to look under the couch.

"Just checking to see nothing ended up under here," he explained.

"Like what?" Maya asked, coming down the rest of the way.

"Pacifiers, socks… food… anything that might stink or go bad…"

"Our son is looking as cute as his little baby butt can be and you are missing it for a spot check you already checked… three times now," Maya informed. "You're also missing your bride to be, who showered, and put on some clean clothes for the first time in two days, she just realized." Lucas finally sat up and looked at her, standing across the couch with Elliott.

"Right, no, you're right, I'm just a bit…"

"Anxious? Yeah, right there with you," she promised, taking a seat while he stood and dropped again next to her.

"At the risk of sounding late to the party, you look beautiful," Lucas smiled.

"Your credit's good here," she promised, smiling back as she leaned in to kiss him.

"And this guy," he looked to their son as he pulled back. Elliott's head leaned to his mother just so that he stared to his father as he looked at him. "I can't stop smiling and I've seen you every day you've been alive, how do you think some of them are going to feel when they've never seen you in person before?" The baby was passed over into his arms, and Maya knew exactly what he meant about not being able to keep from smiling as she watched Lucas make faces at the boy staring at him with something like curiosity.

Looking around, she tried not to go down the same route that had led him to go checking under the couch again, but she was definitely scanning the place to see that everything was clean and orderly. Sure, they'd had people over at the house over the last few weeks, but those had most been their parents, and Pappy Joe, and some of their friends… The house hadn't always been at its cleanest whenever they'd have visitors, but they always did their best to ensure it didn't look like a tornado had blown through the place. Today… Today they both wanted it to look as good as it could look, not because their visitors would think any less of them, especially this group, but because… Well, it felt like taking a deep breath in and letting it out again. They were receiving guests.

The firsts to arrive were also those who'd travelled the furthest to get here, driving over from Houston. It felt like they hadn't seen each other in so long, which wasn't exactly true, but not exactly false either. Not for lack of wanting, they'd just been busy, all of them, tending to their own newborn children.

"Hey… Hey, Zola girl, look at you!" Maya was all smiles at finding the almost three-month-old babe in Willow's arms.

"Want to swap?" Willow laughed, looking to Elliott in _her_ arms with a swell of emotion. She had yet to meet him.

"We need more hands than this," Maya considered the situation for a moment.

"Here," Lucas came along, taking Willow's daughter from her, enabling Elliott to be passed to their guest before then passing the girl to Maya. "I'm going to go and give him a hand," he indicated Lion over at the car before jogging out.

"Hey… Hi… Yeah, you and I haven't seen each other in a while, have we?" Maya looked to the Obi girl who stared back at her with that sort of vacantly content look about her. She was somewhere new, but she also felt secure, so she bowed her head to rest it against the one who held her.

"I remember when she was this small…" Willow hummed, gently rubbing at Elliott's back as she held him. She missed it, though it was the kind of thing you could handle missing because here was your kid, who had passed through that moment in her life and was now reaching new heights.

Looking to one another, Maya knew Willow was thinking much the same thing she was. It didn't seem so long ago that they were sitting together in the Houston house on Halloween night, both of them pregnant at the time though only one of them knowing it for sure while the other would have to wait and wait before finally finding out the truth. For Maya, having Willow there, just a couple months ahead of her all along had really gotten to feel sort of… indispensable. Now here they were, both of them mothers.

"Are we the first ones here?" Willow asked as they navigated the dogs, eagerly yapping at their feet for finding visitors, one of them they recognized from long ago.

"You are, yeah. Pappy Joe took off for the day, got picked up by my old professor…" Maya revealed, which pulled a smirk from Willow. "I know," she laughed, looking down to little Zola. For as long as it had been since she'd held the girl, and how young she still was, to find her responding so well to her, like she recalled her… She kissed the girl's hand, gripped around her finger.

It wasn't long after the guys had come along with Zola's things that there came another car, soon to be liberated of more baby things.

"Oh, I know that look," Lucas went up to meet the arrivals, ready to help with whatever needed carrying. "That's us two weeks ago," he smiled as Aaron Tran climbed out of the passenger seat.

"If that means I'll look like you two weeks from now, I can take it," Aaron nodded. "Besides, what's another sleepless night when it's for her," he went and opened the back door, carefully removing the seat where his and Marius' two-week-old daughter slept. "Look at her, one quick drive and she'll have you think she's peaceful, but it's an illusion, the girl has lungs on her like she wants to sing for the opera."

"Yeah, don't worry about it, she can start a band with ours once he gets into it," Lucas nodded back to the house. "Need me to grab anything?"

"We have travelled surprisingly light today," Marius appeared from the back of the car with a bag hanging from his back and one more in either hand.

"If you wouldn't mind taking her though," Aaron indicated the seat. "I really should be taking it easy with this wrist here," he held up his hand. He had become another member for the Delivery Day Injury club, taking a spill upon learning that their surrogate had gone into labor.

"No problem," Lucas assured him, taking the seat and starting toward the house. "Hey there, Simone," he smiled at the small girl seeming on the verge of waking up again. Much as Aaron had suggested, the car ride had gotten her to sleep, but now that this had stopped, she was ready to give another show. "Okay, okay, let's see if this works for you, too," Lucas hummed, giving the seat the slight motion he'd tried to replicate from when they'd be riding in the car. It tended to work for Elliott, but whether it would do the same… "I think we're good," he whispered back.

"I don't know how you did that but you are teaching me before we go or I'm staying until you do," Aaron declared in a reverent hush.

As they reached the house, the new fathers were embraced by Maya, who introduced them to Willow and Lion before being met with little Simone. Setting the three babies side by side, eleven-week-old Zola Obi, four-week-old Elliott Friar, and two-week-old Simone Tran, it wasn't long that the new parents were snapping pictures to add to their already sizable collections.

"How's Samantha doing?" Maya asked.

"She's doing well," Marius replied with a nod. "She asked me to say hello and that she would call you soon when I went to see her for the bottles. She would have liked to be here, only…"

"No, I understand," Maya promised.

They _had_ wondered about what would happen once Samantha had the baby, once it was put in the arms of her fathers and was no longer her responsibility. She may have been her biological mother, but she was not her parent. After Simone had been born, her parents' new friends had finally been told about the decision the three of them had made, Samantha, Aaron, and Marius. The couple was all for having Samantha in Simone's life, if that was what she wanted, and it _was_ what she wanted, it was. Only, she realized it would be difficult not to look at that little girl who had her eyes and not think about what it had been like to carry her, to feel her move, and kick…

So the choice had been made that she would keep away from her, for a few months at least, to try and give herself the chance to breathe, and accept the separation. She hadn't seen or held Simone since she was born, but she sent her milk through Aaron and Marius, who'd come and tell her how she was doing.

The rest of their guests arrived all at once, driven in by Ainsley Ellis. Along with her son, Cameron, she'd accompanied the two of their little group who had yet to give birth. By the looks of her though, it looked as though one of them could have gone into labor right here and now.

"I know, I know, I'm huge," Billie Lawson laughed, like it was the best thing in the world.

"You alright?" Maya chuckled, heading out to meet her.

"Will be better once I'm sitting down," she breathed as they hugged. "Three more weeks…"

"Could be less," Maya pointed out. "Or more…"

"No, no, see, we made a deal, the young one and I. Bastille Day, it's perfect, ain't it, sweetheart?" she asked, rubbing her belly.

"Okay, go on and sit," Maya pointed to the house before approaching the girl who'd just gotten out of the car while Ainsley unbuckled her son from his seat. There really was no hiding that belly now… "Hey, Brianna," she smiled. "How are you?"

"Hot," the sixteen-year-old breathed.

"Yeah, definitely. Come on, it'll be better inside."

She still had a little more than three months to go. She would have turned seventeen by then, not that it would have changed much of her situation. Her parents were trying to be supportive, and on the whole they were. But they did not approve, of any of it, and she could tell. Maya had been hearing all about it, had insisted that the girl could and should call her if she ever needed to talk. Her boyfriend, Sanjay, was in much the same situation with _his_ parents, and they didn't even know that there was a chance Brianna's baby was not his.

And then there was potential father number two. From what Brianna had told Maya, he was proving himself true to his word so far. He didn't want anyone knowing the baby might be his, so long as there was a chance that it wasn't, but because there was a chance that it _was_ his, he would check in with her whenever he could, asking how she was doing, how the baby was doing… And he had been doing his research, Brianna was sure, from some of the questions he'd ask. It was reassuring, but at the same time it left the young mother to be sort of perplexed about what would happen once they knew for sure.

It was a really good day, for all of them. They had created this little cluster almost by chance, with Maya and Lucas at the heart of it all. When it came down to it though, it was support, with all of them going through a lot of the same things at the same time. It came about that day that Ainsley had offered the spare room in her apartment for Brianna to take, if she ever felt she couldn't stay at home anymore. She could stay as long as she needed, her and the baby both once it was born. Brianna hadn't made a decision, but looking at her it was almost certain she was genuinely considering it.

X

"What time are they coming over?" Lucas asked, moving out into the living room, expecting to find Maya and the baby and instead finding an empty couch. "Maya?" he called up the stairs.

"Nursery!" she called back, and he went off to find her.

She stood in the midst of boxes, pieces of furniture in need of assembly. Elliott was in her arms, yawning his way closer and closer to sleep, while she looked around the room. She had that look in her eyes, that creation look. And the way she was staring at the walls, he had a good idea _what_ she meant to create.

"Shouldn't we wait until after they've come and gone from here? Until it's his nursery again?" They were literally supposed to turn the place into a room for Eliza and Wyatt today. The furniture was theirs, part of their new sets for their new rooms once they moved, in replacement of the ones they would be leaving in New York. It had been delivered here, so they might use it while they stayed here for the next month and some days. Their parents were coming over for a visit and to help with the assembly.

"Yeah… I guess…" Maya replied. Nothing in her voice suggested she wasn't trying to figure out if she had all the materials she'd need in that moment in order to create the mural she'd been conjuring up in her head and in her sketchbooks for months already.

"Maya… We have to get the room ready, they'll be here tomorrow," he reminded her.

"They will," she nodded, still looking at the walls.

"And once we start putting everything together…"

"I just… I've been wanting to do this for so long. Not just wanting, I _need_ to do it. For him," she looked down to their son in her arms. "I want him to have his place, with everything as it should be…"

"It won't be his place until after your siblings are gone again. And that's only if we're ready to move his crib back here when that happens. _Are_ we ready?" he asked, coming to stand with her, with the baby, clinging to the front of her shirt.

"Not yet, no," she shook her head. "He's good where he is now," she smiled.

"What if… What if you made him like… a mini mural?" Lucas suggested after a moment. She turned her head.

"I'm listening."

"Come on," he led her out into the hall and into their room, to the corner where they'd set Elliott's crib. Now with Eliza and Wyatt coming to stay with them, they had moved a lot of the baby's things in here, the changing table, the rocking chair… "Right there, on the wall, maybe the ceiling over it, too?" he pointed.

"You want me to paint on the wall here?" she asked, amused. "The crib's not going to stay there forever."

"No, but… it'll come back," Lucas looked at her, and she smiled, knowing what he meant. "And it's like you said before, eventually we're going to have to paint over the other one, in the nursery. Don't you want to have a little something, to hold on to, when we're done with cribs?"

"Dude, that is _low_, coming after my mama hormones?" she squinted at him, brushing at their son's fine hair.

"Does that mean you don't want the mini mural?" he smiled, knowing very well the answer would be…

"Of course I want the mini mural. Here, I need to start making sketches," she held out the baby, who was happily taken by his father.

"Come on, Sprout, let's give your mom some space so she can do her thing."

By the time the Friars and the Hunter Harts arrived, the sketch was done, the crib had been moved out of the way, and the paints and brushes had been brought in from the basement. There hadn't really been anywhere for them to set all of that up when they'd moved in, what with Maya being so close to giving birth, and then after the baby had been born… Sometime this summer, she was really going to have to figure out what she would do about her art supplies.

And by the time anyone came upstairs to see what Maya was up to, already the base of her mural was taking shape. That shape was that of a tall tree. She was in the midst of tracing out the trunk, and its branches, which would spread to the heights of the wall and up to stop at the edge where they met the ceiling.

"My goodness, that is a big tree," Melinda Friar declared, as she and Katy Hart came to poke their heads in. Maya turned to look. She had that spark in her eyes. It was the biggest art project she'd gotten to do since before the baby, and she had almost forgotten how much she loved it all.

"Hey! Yeah, it'll be great, won't it?" she asked, looking back at the wall. "It's a bit hard to explain right now, but I'll need you guys later, okay?"

"Anything you need, baby girl," Katy promised. It was good to see her like this. She was more relaxed now than she'd been for a while after she'd found out she was pregnant, after she'd nearly lost that baby. She was five months along now, and all indications said the baby was out of the woods, though of course she was still being careful, still being looked after… They'd found out it would be another boy, and none was more thrilled than MJ, who was going to have a 'baby bother.'

"You can stick around if you want," Maya told her mother and her future mother-in-law. "Are the twins and MJ…"

"Pappy Joe is showing them a card trick downstairs," Melinda informed her, which made her smirk before getting back to her paints.

As Eliza and Wyatt's room was coming together across the hall, Maya carried on painting her tree. She'd had plenty of time to pick up new tricks from the internet while she'd been meant to keep it relaxed toward the end of her pregnancy and the beginning of her parenting days. One of the things she had looked into a lot was becoming handy here. Her tree was looking more and more realistic, to the point where one might have believed it to be real at first glance.

"Okay…" Maya breathed, stepping back. "Have to wait until it's dry now," she nodded, satisfied.

"Wait, you're done?" Katy asked. "Aren't you going to put some leaves or something?" Maya smiled, walking over to her mother and taking up her hand, palm out, fingers spread.

"I am."

When the tree was good and dry, Maya had returned to the room, escorting the first of her helpers. Nellie, Gracie, and MJ all looked up in awe at the great, tall tree in the corner of the room. One by one, her young siblings were shown an array of colors and the picked one. In turn, Maya would then spread that paint on one of their hands, more than one of them melting into giggles because it tickled. Once their hand was ready, she would lift her sibling up until they could press their hand against the wall, along one of the branches of their choice. After this was done for all three, and after their hands had been cleaned again, before they could touch anything and get paint everywhere, Maya had gone in for the next phase. She traced the outline of the leaf around the hand print, filling in around it so that it could still be discerned within the leaf on the branch. Finally, she would trace the names of along the edge, just enough that it could be read from up close.

The exercise would soon be repeated with each of Katy and Shawn, and Thomas and Melinda, and Pappy Joe, who finally got to grasp what her vision for this mini mural was. In weeks and months to come, whenever any 'missing leaf' would come by the house, they would be taken up to the room, they would get their hand painted, and a new leaf would join the colorful tree looking down on Elliott's crib.

The next two, after the ones who were there the day the tree went up, would be Eliza and Wyatt Hart, when they arrived from New York the following day.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go and get them on my own?" Lucas asked as he and Maya got into the car. She was looking back to the house, to where Pappy Joe sat on the porch with Elliott.

"I'm sure, I should be there," she insisted, turning back to him. "We won't be gone long, and… a-and I have to do this eventually so… Let's just do it now." It would be the first time she went anywhere without Elliott being no more than up or down a flight of stairs from her ever since he'd been born. Lucas had done it several times now, especially as he'd started to work, Monday through Friday, but Maya…

"If you're sure you're ready," Lucas told her, wanting to be absolutely sure. She looked at him, and back toward the house…

"It's silly, I mean, he's only five weeks old, it's not like… I just… He's not going to think that I… that I'm leaving him, is he? That's just not… He can't be old enough to think that, can he? But… But what if he…"

"Hey…" Lucas reached for her hand. She turned to look at him again. There was worry all over her face, bordering on panic. "Hey, hey…" he unbuckled his seat belt and moved closer to her. "Hey," he pressed his forehead to the side of her face.

He'd sort of expected this to be a big step for her, but he hadn't seen this coming, this fear made up of childhood issues and a bond forged of nine months with their sprout in her belly. She wasn't just concerned about leaving him, she was scared, not even for herself but for him. She knew it was irrational, but that didn't stop her feeling it. And now they really had to make a decision, one way or another, someone had to go and collect her siblings from the airport. They were coming unaccompanied, and if there was no one there to collect them…

"What if… What if we stay connected with him this time, while we're gone?"

"Connected how?" Maya asked, blinking.

They spent the whole ride to the airport with Maya holding her phone in front of herself, the call connected on the other side to Pappy Joe, with Elliott, looking at their respective screens. They were apart, but they were together. It wasn't going to be something they could or should do every time, but… it was helping.

"Do you think you're okay to hang up now?" Lucas asked once they were parked in the airport lot. Maya was still looking at the screen, at Pappy Joe pretending as though Elliott was gripping his finger so, so tight that it hurt, as though he was hoping to trigger a laugh out of the baby boy. He was okay. He was safe, and he had no reason to believe his parents wouldn't come back. He didn't even have the ability to believe that was a thing people did, leaving their children.

"Yeah…" Maya finally breathed, once and another time. "Yeah. Hey, Pappy Joe?" He blinked, his act interrupted. "We'll see you when we get back, okay?"

"Absolutely. We'll be waiting out here, while your boy breaks my finger," he smiled at her.

"We'll try and bring you back some ice," Maya smiled back.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	43. Those Days of Summer

_Chapter 43_  
_Those Days of Summer_

Much as it still had her insides in unexpected levels of turmoil to be away from home, from the baby, Maya was excited. Two of her siblings were on their way, would be arriving soon, and they wouldn't be going away again. They would be living with her and Lucas for a little over a month, and then they'd be moving into their new house. Ten minutes by car, not much more by bus… Even though they knew the house, had seen it, even though they were all aware of all the steps being taken with the move out of New York, there had still been that barrier, that layer that kept the whole thing from feeling completely and truly real. But now… Now a tear had started to appear in that barrier, and it was cracking wider and wider open by the minute. This was real.

"Do you know what they'll say when they come through that gate?" Lucas asked, pulling her back out of her thoughts.

"'Hey, how come you didn't bring the baby?'" she guessed, making him chuckle.

"Something like that, yeah," he nodded. "Makes sense that we didn't bring him though, right?"

"No, yeah, absolutely," Maya agreed at once, looking around. "All those people running around, impatient, stressed… Plus, the noise… And if we had to change his diaper, or clean him, it would just be a nightmare. He's better off waiting at home with Pappy Joe so he won't be all cranky and wound up when his aunt and uncle arrive."

"Well, it shouldn't be long now," Lucas pointed to the arrivals board.

Eliza and Wyatt Hart were escorted along off the plane. They were holding hands and all the while looking all around in search of their people. Maya was sure if they hadn't spotted her and Lucas when they did, Wyatt would have resorted to calling out her name to reach her a second later. Luckily, sight had been established, and it was four happy faces looking to one another as they moved to meet up.

"Maya!" Wyatt sped off to lock his arms around his big sister,

"Hey, you," she hugged him back, kissed the top of his head before opening out one arm so Eliza would join them, which she did, at once. "So glad you're here," Maya kissed her sister as well, those small arms around her feeling like the great rendering of that barrier. They were here, they were home.

"Where's the baby?" Eliza asked, making her sister laugh and Lucas with her, too.

A lot of their belongings would be coming along with their parents next month, but until then Eliza and Wyatt had been sent along with what they would both need and want to have with them in Austin while they were staying with their big sister and her family. With the both of them now, it meant that they would soon be making their way out of the airport with very nearly too many bags and people for them to fit in the one car. When they had finally, just barely gotten it all settled, Maya and Lucas had shared a look. It really was just as well that they hadn't brought Elliott along, him or his seat.

"Are we going to sleep with the baby?" Eliza asked as they made their way back home.

"Uh, well, you'll be sleeping in his room, but _he's_ still sleeping in our room," Maya explained, indicating herself and Lucas. "You'll be just across the hall though, okay?" she promised, turning to look at them both.

She had a good feeling about what they'd be wondering right about now. All the times they'd been sleeping in the same house, anywhere, these two had done much as her twin sisters had been doing in the same situation. They would often come and climb into bed with her, burrow their way between Lucas and her. Were they still allowed to do it? No matter what, they were about to spend a very long time away from their parents, they were in the middle of a long-distance move…

"We'll figure it all out, alright?"

"I want to see the house!" Wyatt demanded.

"Which house? Your new house?" Lucas asked, and the boy nodded. Lucas looked to Maya as discreetly as he could. It was her call. Did they have time for a detour? She let out a breath, tipping her head just a fraction. _Go for it_. "Alright, well we can drive past it on the way, sound good?"

As they'd been getting closer to the house, Eliza and Wyatt had gotten into something like a chant, wondering how close they were getting. It had their sister and her fiancé laughing, even as they pointed to the house with the 'sold' sign out front. They slowed to a stop, where the kids crowded at the window to get a look.

"Which one's my window?" Eliza wondered.

"Actually, should be that one there, do you see it?" Maya asked, pointing. "Second from the left. And Wyatt's is the next one there."

Finally, they were on their way back to the lane, and Lucas could just see Maya was equally invested in seeing how long it would actually take to drive from this house to theirs as she was in just getting back there, to be with Elliott again.

He would be tempted to think to himself how there was no comparing what he felt when he was away from the baby, not against what she had to feel, but then he knew that if he even suggested that his missing their son when he was away from him somehow mattered less than when it was her… She would call him an idiot, the way you did when what you were really saying was 'I love you, don't be silly.' She would tell him that of course it mattered, of course it did.

He'd barely even gotten to start working at his new Austin jobs after the move. Just a couple of days and then boom, or… splash… Out came Elliott, and then he had to count on his new bosses being _very_ understanding and let him go on time off, much sooner than any of them had expected him to need it. But he'd gotten all the time he could reasonably ask for, and so he had to just go back. He had two jobs, and he'd returned to them one after the other. For now, he worked only Monday through Friday, and if he could continue that way he would. He wanted to hold on to those weekends, to spend time with Maya and Elliott more than just mornings and evenings, provided he wasn't working at either the bookstore or the pet store.

To make matters even more difficult than they had felt, Elliott had been particularly clingy the morning of his first day back at work. Lucas had taken him once he'd been fed, wanting to spend as much time with him as possible before he had to go, and his son had just held to him… His head was good and nestled at his father's chest, his little hand grasping to his nice, clean work shirt. He didn't even spit up or anything, he just held on, and Lucas knew both he and Maya might sometimes have put too much stock in how much their infant son did or didn't understand what was going on around him, but that morning it was sort of hard not to believe he knew his daddy was going away for most of the day and he did not want it to happen.

"I wish I could bring you with me, I do, okay?" Lucas would tell him, lightly rocking him as he paced the floor. "A real crowd pleaser, that's what you'd be. But I gotta go, and you get to stay with your mom, and your great pappy…" Even with those selling points, Elliott remained fervent in making Lucas feel something like guilt at the thought of leaving him for the day. He would hold, and hold, and if his daddy tried to pull him away, set him back in his crib, he would start to fuss, and cry…

"The kid knows what he wants, you gotta hand him that," Pappy Joe had come along in the end, to take Elliott. "Here, hand him over, I'll weather that storm."

So, he'd handed him to his grandfather, touching the babe's head when he started to cry in earnest before making his way down the stairs. Maya was there, finishing up a lunch for him to take along. It was their old standard, what could have been a corny joke but turned back into what it needed to be in the end, just a genuine caring gesture.

"You got this," she told him, putting her arms around his neck. "It won't be so bad once you get going, okay?" He didn't know if he believed that just now, but he trusted her enough to know he'd come around to it in the end. "If it helps, hold on to the fact that, later today, I'm off for a fitting at the wedding dress store, to see how we're doing post baby," she smiled. That certainly did it, as far as getting a smile back on his face. They were getting married in just over two months… They may have been neck deep in baby things these days, but no one was forgetting about the wedding either, especially him and her.

"It does help, yeah," he'd nodded.

"Just keep your fingers crossed that it's not too much of a train wreck?" she sighed, and he kissed her, passing on what encouragement he could back on to her.

Getting into the car had helped some, to get him going, but then the world seemed hell bent on making him miss them both, Elliott _and_ Maya, on that first day. Much as he tried to focus on his work, his clients, to give them all the care and attention he could, sooner or later there would be something to make him think about them and he'd have to start all over again. It could be the most obvious thing, like a client pushing a stroller with a baby into the store, or the most subtle – to the point of feeling like he was reaching – detail. He'd spotted a brand of dog food that showed a small child holding a puppy and he'd almost lost it and called home to check on Elliott. Still, somehow, he made it through.

When he'd finally gotten to drive home at the end of the day, he'd pulled up to the house to find a welcoming party waiting for him on the porch. There was his grandfather, snoozing along, while Maya sat at his side, looking on to Elliott in his seat, kept next to her. The dogs were there as well, peacefully keeping guard of their small human, though they'd gotten up when his car had approached. Lucas didn't know that he'd let go of Elliott for a good couple of hours after he'd picked him up that evening.

They were treated to much the same welcoming party that day, save for Maya who was of course in the car with him this time around, as they brought the Hart kids home. There was Pappy Joe, sat much as they'd left him, with Elliott in his arms, while the dogs sat on the ground next to him. Maya had been so amused to see how Trix and Lou's habits had changed since the baby was born. They still eagerly greeted people when they came along, but they didn't shoot off like rockets so easily, not when Elliott was nearby. Their allegiances appeared to have shifted right on to him and wanting to see to his needs. When he would start to cry, the dogs would soon be underfoot, not even barking and making him even more distressed, just keeping nearby and looking on, maybe waiting to see if they could do anything to help.

This time around, they came down the porch steps and stood in eager wait as the car stopped and the people emerged. They recognized the children, and they went on toward them as Eliza and Wyatt came dashing to greet the dogs. Wyatt remained focused on Lou for a time, holding the giddy dog, while Eliza had finally gone up to find the baby, already returned to his mother.

Maya had done her best not to come off in any way desperate as she'd gotten out of the car and moved up to find her son. Still, when Pappy Joe had handed him over and she'd found him peacefully sleeping, no sign of any distress in him whatsoever, Maya had felt as though she'd been holding her breath since they'd gone and now… now she could breathe again. It had been so difficult for her to be away from him, and they had only been gone a couple of hours. What would it be like the next time? What would it be like when she went back to work, to school…

"Everything go alright?" she asked Pappy Joe.

"Oh, yeah, finger's healing nicely," he replied with ease, flexing his fingers for show. "Can bend it and everything. That boy of yours got himself a mighty grip." Maya smiled, kissing the top of Elliott's head.

"This your way of telling me I need to stop stressing so much?"

"I will never tell you or him how to feel about being away from your children," Pappy Joe assured her, and she understood where this was coming from, much as it pained them both in their own way. "Well hello there, Miss Eliza," he tipped his head and smiled to the girl as she came forward. It made her smile, whenever he called her that, so naturally he called her that every chance he got.

"Hi," she waved to him. Approaching her sister, she turned that smile on to her little nephew. "He's sleeping?" she asked in a whisper. Maya could easily read this as 'so I can't hold him right now, right?'

"Yeah, he is," Maya told her. "So you need to be careful, okay?" she nodded to the seat next to Pappy Joe, and Eliza sat there at once to receive the baby. If the small blonde was in any way tired out from her day of travels, she didn't look it as she sat there, humming gently to ensure that Elliott wouldn't wake from his nap.

"He's bigger than last time," she remarked.

"Yeah, that's sort of how it works with babies," Maya nodded, looking on.

"After we move into the new house, can I babysit him?" Eliza asked with confidence. It made Pappy Joe chuckle.

"Well…" Maya slowly started, looking to the eight-year-old. "When you were back in New York with your parents, if they went out, would they leave you alone at the house sometimes?"

"No…" Eliza instantly deflated, her ideas of responsibility taken away.

"You wouldn't be left alone with a one-month-old baby anyway," Maya told her, seeking to comfort her. "I'm his mom and sometimes I feel like I don't know what to do either. But now you're going to be here, remember? You're going to be minutes away from us all the time. So in a couple of years, when we do need someone to watch him, it'll be Aunt Eliza to the rescue, right?" The smile made a swift return.

"Yeah," she nodded, promising. "What about if Cara wants to do it, too? She's older than me."

"Well, you asked first," Pappy Joe chimed in.

"Yeah, I asked first!" Eliza grasped on to that.

"How about we wait and see how everyone feels about this when the time comes," Maya told her, and this appeared to satisfy the matter for now. This was just as well, as up came Uncle Wyatt, who'd finally let go of Lou and stepped up to get a look at the baby. Like his sister he quickly noticed that Elliott was asleep, and his demeanor instantly shifted into 'must not wake!' mode. Still, he came up and watched him, smiling happily for being here at last.

He would get his turn to hold his nephew in time. In the meantime, Lucas had seen to unloading the car and getting everything into the house, up the stairs, and into the temporary guest room, where they would be able to unpack and settle in once they had gotten past the novelty of being with the baby. Once that happened, they would want nothing more than to go into the house and to see their room. Soon enough, he would be proven correct.

"We got to see everything in the store and pick the ones we wanted," Eliza told him and Maya and Pappy Joe as the now six residents made their way up toward the nursery.

"I know," Maya smiled at her, Elliott back in her arms once more. He'd woken up just before they came inside, and she knew it wouldn't be long before she had to go and feed him, but then the unpacking would be happening by then and they wouldn't even notice her sneaking off for some peace and quiet. "Wait until you see it all put together," she told her siblings, turning a smirk to Lucas and Pappy Joe, who knew how long everyone had debated about the placement of the beds and night stands, the dresser, the small storage cabinet… And once they'd gotten all that done, everyone was so beat that it came down to Maya and Lucas to break out the bedding sets they'd also shipped out here and put those final personalizing touches, establishing these were indeed Eliza and Wyatt's beds.

"Spider-man!" Wyatt bolted for his own bed, near the window, just as he liked it. From what they'd been hearing, he had been going on and on about his new sheets and how he couldn't wait to sleep in them.

Eliza was equally fascinated over her own bedspread. She had recently developed a love and fascination for turtles, and so when the time had come for her to select her new sheets, the choice had been easy. Maya and Lucas had been hearing all about how, once they were all settled in to the new house, Kermit and Abigail had promised her that she could have her very own pet turtle. Anticipating a barrage of questions aimed at him, being the future animal doctor that he was, Lucas had been casually reading up on all things turtles. It was genuinely fun for him, too, with or without the playful teasing he got from Maya over his old Ninja Turtle days.

"What do you think?" Lucas asked their young guests.

"Can you help me find my lamp?" Eliza asked, while Wyatt was already trying to tug one of his bags closer to his bed so he might open it. And that was that. They were satisfied, and now they just wanted to put their belongings in their temporary room.

"Back in a little bit?" Maya whispered to Lucas, indicating Elliott. He nodded, and as she moved back into their room and shut the door, he joined Pappy Joe in helping the kids unpack.

It had just mattered to everyone for them to just get the kids picked up and settled in, so they had sent a quick message off to Kermit and Abigail to let them know they had safely picked up the kids back at the airport, waiting until later to go ahead and give them a call. When Maya returned to the room across the hall after having both fed and changed Elliott, Operation Unpack was just about done already. The room had gone and shifted from being the nursery, to their temporary guest room, to now being decidedly Eliza and Wyatt's room, just as it should be.

"Wow…" she expressed her reaction and got two big smiles in return. "That happened quick."

"There's drawers under here!" Wyatt went and showed her, sounding impressed like he hadn't realized this when he'd picked it out in the store and now found it to be the greatest invention in the world.

"I know!" Maya matched him on giddiness. "What'd you put in there?" The four-year-old shrugged.

"Stuff."

"Right," Maya chuckled.

"Where's the baby?" Eliza asked.

"He is napping… hopefully… Now, you guys want to come downstairs so we can the others back in New York?" They did, they very much did, and they showed it by taking off at a run. "Walking! We're walking!" she called after them before turning to Lucas and Pappy Joe. "We've been parents for just a month now, I know, but that just came off so… mom-like," she declared.

Pappy Joe stayed upstairs, which Maya and Lucas both knew would mean he would be checking in on Elliott from time to time, like a human baby monitor. Meanwhile, the two of them went down and joined the kids who waited for them in the living room. The laptop was installed on the coffee table, and the four of them bunched up in front of it, Maya and Lucas on the couch and Eliza and Wyatt on the ground between them and the table. The call was put in, and soon a similar looking image appeared on the screen, with Kermit and Abigail on _their _couch and Sam and Cara on the ground.

"Mommy, we saw the house!" Wyatt declared in greeting. "I saw my Spider-man bed and there's drawers!"

"I held the baby!" Eliza chimed in. "_And_ I get to babysit him when I'm older."

"Hey guys," Maya chuckled as she waved to the rest of the family.

For a good long while both Maya and Lucas mostly kept quiet, leaving the floor to their new lodgers so they could share the tale of their flight from New York to Austin, just the two of them together… and then their arrival at the airport… and the drive to the new house… and to this house… and seeing the baby… and their room… and unpacking… After a while, they had left the kids to keep on talking and headed into the kitchen to get dinner started.

"They're excited to be here," Lucas declared, as though there was any doubt. Maya laughed.

"Are they? I couldn't tell," she joked.

Soon they were both of them stood side by side at the counter, chopping vegetables, preparing meat… Something about the whole process had always been an easy road into getting lost in thought, it almost went without saying. But then since they both knew it, sooner or later they could just tell they were both thinking about something, and they'd get curious. So it would turn into a bit of 'you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine' game. They liked their game. It usually started with one of them going, as Lucas did this time:

"Wanna go first?"

"Uh… Maybe you go first this time," she told him with a small smile.

"Right, well…" he breathed out, hesitating for a moment. They didn't keep anything from one another, nothing, good news, bad news, concerns… Still, he never liked feeling like he was potentially creating problems where there were none. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, with earlier, when we left for the airport.

"Ah," she nodded, and he guessed she'd expected this to be what he'd say. "Have to admit, I figured it'd be hard to go, but I didn't know _how_ difficult it would get."

"Yeah," Lucas agreed.

"It was like being asked to leave a part of myself behind and I couldn't function without it," she explained. "So basically he's screwed for having a social life away from us, huh?" Lucas laughed. "Suddenly it feels like our parents make so much more sense."

"So much more," he echoed.

"I think it'll take a few more times for me to really… get used to it…"

"How many's a few?"

"He should be good for pre-school," she smiled back at him and he smiled as well, leaning to kiss the side of her face.

"So, what's your thing?" Lucas asked after a few seconds of quiet chopping had fallen in like a border between topics. Maya didn't reply right away, though he could see a smirk blooming over her face. "Come on, I told you mine, now it's your turn," he reminded her.

"Yeah, well…" she trailed on, turning her head to peer into the living room, making sure that her siblings were still busy on their call. "Mine's just a bit more of… touchy…" she explained, holding now like she'd thought of something else and gotten a laugh out of it.

"Okay?" he gave an intrigued smile. "How so?"

"Well…" she trailed again, nudging a pile of carrot dices aside and carrying on with her chopping. "You know that talk we had a while back, before Elliott was even born, about… you and me and how… we were going to have to put some things on pause for a little while, for obvious… recovery reasons?"

She watched him as he took in the words, didn't seem to understand what she was going on about. Then his eyes widened in a sort of 'Oh!' moment of realization, and he gave the living room a check just as she'd done before.

"Yeah… Yeah, I remember," he spoke quietly, making her bite back a laugh.

"Right, well, I was just thinking about how it might be coming around that time."

"Now?" he blinked.

"No, not now," she squinted at him, all the while still with that sort of under layer of a smile. "Not tonight either, I mean they just got here and you just know one of them is going to come into our room, if not both of them. Besides, I think we still need to wait like… a couple of weeks at least, for me, and for us figuring out things with those two," Maya nodded back to the living room.

"Absolutely, yeah," he agreed at once.

"But, I mean… At least now you know where we stand."

"Touchy…" he repeated what she'd told him earlier, causing them both to break into discreet chuckles. "Got it now."

"You might get it later, too," she gave him a look, and he turned to look at her again. "Hey, just because we can't do _everything_ yet, doesn't mean we can't do _anything_," she whispered.

"You make an excellent point," he breathed.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	44. The Next Big Thing

_Chapter 44_  
_The Next Big Thing_

They had timed it so that Eliza and Wyatt would arrive in Austin just as Lucas had a couple days off work, with it being the fourth of July weekend. It had allowed them some time, after the two of them had landed, to really get settled in, not just at the house but in the city itself. It wasn't all going to happen in the blink of an eye, of course, but it would be a start. Now, this morning, he was back to work, which left Maya to her own devices – unless Pappy Joe would be around – as she looked after her son, her brother, and her sister.

She decided to take them to her parents' house. It wasn't that she couldn't cope with looking after the three of them. On the whole, her siblings did not need so much supervision. It hadn't taken Maya long to figure out the best ways to focus the pair, if either of them showed any sign of being one good distraction away from running up the walls. It was sort of how Lucas had said it… or maybe she'd said it… She was so tired half the time that she couldn't remember for sure… Either way, one of them had found the key: Eliza and Wyatt were both the aunt and uncle to her one-month-old son, and she gave them some kind of task to involve them in Elliott's care in some way… they were good to go.

Not that this hadn't come with a bit of a lesson in wording.

Wyatt especially needed to understand that, as well intentioned as he always was, he _was_ still only four years old, and his abilities often times did not align with his goals. This showed when he attempted to change Elliott's diaper all on his own. He'd seen it done before, he was secure in his knowing everything that would be needed, and for what set-up Lucas had found when he'd come hurrying up on the trail of his son's cries, maybe it had started up alright. Wyatt had laid a blanket on the ground in his sister's room, found a clean diaper, and wipes… He'd even managed to get Elliott and – very carefully – set him down on the blanket, watching his head the whole time. He repeated this many times afterward, like he wanted to make sure they knew so they wouldn't be upset with him.

The troubles had come when Wyatt had had difficulty getting the diaper undone, and then more so when it had been opened and mayhem of various kinds was found within. Panicking just a bit and not knowing what to do, Wyatt had tried to just close the diaper again, which had not pleased his young nephew one bit. He'd started hollering, and he would not be silenced, until finally his father had come into the room and taken him up and changed him.

"So what happened here?" Lucas had asked, sitting on the ground as he kept rubbing Elliott's back to calm him down.

"I-I-I…" Wyatt sniffled, with some turmoil of his own. "I-I just… just wanted to… to help, like… like you guys said I-I should," he finally managed to explain.

"Hey, hey, look at me," Lucas told the boy, his voice remaining calm at all times. "You're not in trouble, alright?" Wyatt looked up. "But you have to understand, you could have been, okay?" He nodded, wiping at his eyes. "I love that you want to help, I really do. You know how when you hold him we make you sit down first?" Another nod. That's because, as little as you both are, there's a chance you could drop him. I know you didn't this time, but you could have, alright? And Elliott, he's very fragile because he's new. It would be like… like Maya trying to lift up Sam." This made Wyatt smile. "Maybe she could do it, or maybe she'd fall and then they could both get hurt. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Wyatt promised he did. "Next time, how about we just do it together. Yeah?"

So, on the morning when Lucas went back to work for the first time after Eliza and Wyatt had arrived, Maya had not necessarily gone to her parents' because she didn't think she could look after all three of them on her own. Was she in any way concerned about the potential disasters they could encounter? Oh, absolutely. She had a vivid enough imagination to take these possibilities into high gear.

What her reasoning actually had been was that Eliza and Wyatt might have had a better time of it if they got to play with other kids, like the twins and MJ. And on top of that, she did try and enable all the grandparents to spend time with Elliott as much as possible.

"I hate to break it to you, but I'm looking at this kid and I think he's got his dad's height in him," Shawn declared as he picked up the boy out of his car seat, looking him over as he brought him close. To see the love in him, as he held his grandson, was something Maya would never get enough of. All the same, to watch as Elliott would settle to him, understanding in his little baby brain that he was safe, and loved… She couldn't wait to see the kind of bond those two would have as her son grew up.

"Why is everyone so interested in pointing out his growth to me, can't he be small like this for a little longer first?" she rolled her eyes at him as she fished through her bag. She wasn't even looking for anything, truth be told, but it was getting to be a compulsion for her to look and confirm that she hadn't forgotten something at home that she would need for the baby. The worst was when she'd catch herself looking a second time, after she'd already confirmed to herself that she had everything. If she ever looked a third time, that would be a new record.

"Because whenever we do, it makes your face do that thing, right here," Shawn pointed to his brow. "It's hilarious, isn't it, Stretch?" he looked to Elliott in his arms.

"Oh, don't you dare let that stick," Maya pointed at him with a gasp.

"What? Stretch?" Shawn casually asked, looking at her, then at Elliott again. "He doesn't look like he hates it."

"He also can't hold his head up on his own and his life revolves on a cycle of eat, sleep, poop," she nodded to the baby. "You and I, we've known each other a long time, how well do you see this 'Stretch' thing going, Beardo?"

"I got years on you with this game, kid, I've been called worse," Shawn confidently replied, with a look that said 'try me.' Maya cleared her throat, sitting back in her chair, squaring him down as he sat there, balancing Elliott on his arm so he might look at him and kiss his little outstretched hand.

"Right, I got it," Maya sat back up after a few seconds.

"Hit me," Shawn looked at her, his words muffled as the baby had gone and taken hold of his lower lip.

"Mr. Hunter," Maya declared, sitting back with a solid 'mic drop' gesture. Shawn frowned.

"I don't get it, besides…" he started, then paused, catching on, which made Maya smirk.

"You were about to say something like 'I'm not Mr. Hunter, Mr. Hunter's my father,' weren't you?"

"That's a loaded one right there, but let's say I was… maybe…"

"Four, almost five kids now, and a grandson. You are totally Mr. Hunter now."

"Yeah, you did that," he 'accused.'

"Hey, I don't have to call you that," Maya promised, holding her hands up in surrender. "So long as… you know," she nodded to Elliott. Shawn let out a breath.

"Wow… Looks like I need to pass on that crown, don't I?"

"Afraid so," Maya grinned.

"Your kid's going to be taller than you someday," Shawn gave as his last volley and she burst out laughing.

With Grandpa Shawn in total control of the situation with the baby, Maya went off to see what her siblings were getting up to. Considering the fact that there was eight-year-old Eliza along with four-year-old Wyatt, and three-year-old Nellie and Gracie, and one and a half-year-old MJ to contend with, she had a good idea of the overall standings, and she was soon proven right.

Eliza, being twice as old as the next oldest one, had elected herself ruler of the roost and a babysitter in training. How she'd chosen to exercise her power, on this day, was pretty much all she could have hoped to find. Maya found her reading a book to MJ, who sat in her lap, while the other three were belly down on the floor of the twins' room, drawing on large pieces of paper kept in a box with the crayons on top of the small bookshelf.

It very nearly brought her to tears, seeing them all just hanging out together. Siblings from one side and then the other, but in a matter of weeks they'd all be co-existing in the same city, and in the same houses. They would grow to be friends, those three on the ground would likely go to school together, same grade and all… with Mr. Matthews as their teacher… It had all the makings of a really good dream, except it was reality.

"Hey, guys," she walked into the room, moving to sit next to Eliza.

"Ya, do scary voice," MJ pointed at her before indicating the book in Eliza's hands.

"You want me to do the scary voice?" Maya asked, and he nodded. "I don't know, maybe she can do one, too," she nodded to the storyteller. MJ turned his head to look at her expectantly.

"Liza, do scary voice," he now requested, which made her smile.

"There's no scary people in this book," she still felt she had to point out.

"I don't think he cares about that," Maya laughed for how MJ just kept staring at Eliza, waiting. So, she did what she could, which turned out to be a solid kind of scary voice, going by how wide MJ's eyes went, about half a second before he scampered from one Hart girl's lap to another's. "Okay, maybe less zombie and more giant up the beanstalk," Maya instructed, reassuring the boy clinging to her.

"Sorry, I'm sorry," she told MJ, who looked like he'd need a little longer to reconcile 'Liza' with who she'd been Before The Voice.

"Don't worry about it, it's just how he is," Maya assured her sister. "You're a big cuddler, aren't you?" she asked MJ, who just sat there now, quietly sucking his thumb. "He won't remember it next time. He loves getting read to… maybe more than anything so far in his life. That puts you way at the top of his list for favorite people. Go on, keep going, just… regular voice this time, yeah?"

"Okay," Eliza nodded, and she picked up the story where it had been left off. As predicted, in a few pages' time, MJ's attention had started to turn back to her, and the book, and a few pages more saw him crawling over Maya's knee so he might look at the images. He finished out story time halfway on one girl's knee and on to the other's.

The next day, Maya had taken her merry band of three off to the Friar house for some 'quality time with Granny Mel.' The joke between her and Lucas was getting to be that she was starting to suspect one of these days that his mother would not let her and Elliott go away again.

She was always so happy for their arrival, coming to meet them at the car to help take everything in, where 'everything,' more often than not, stopped at Her Junebug. It didn't matter that he had been born on May 31st, he had been and would forever remain her Junebug. _I'll take that over Stretch…_ Still, once she had Elliott in her arms, the rest of the world tended to lose its attraction. It was hard to be mad at it when she clearly just loved the little guy so much. On the whole, so far at least, it was really as 'bad' as it got. Maya and Lucas both had been envisioning her just barging in and declaring they were doing this thing wrong or that they should or shouldn't do one thing or another… Whether she was thinking of bringing those things up, well, that was up to her and her thoughts, but outwardly, so far, she'd been leaving it up to the two of them.

If their arrivals were an affair of joy, when the time would come for them to go home, for her to be parted from her Junebug grandson, she'd look almost in distress, and thus the inside joke had been born between the new parents.

"Where are we going?" Eliza had asked from the backseat as they neared the house.

"We are going to see Lucas' mom. You remember her, right?" Maya looked into the rear view mirror for a moment. Wyatt was looking out the window, kicking his legs about, and in the other mirror which allowed to see Elliott, she saw her son was sleeping just as she'd expected.

"Yeah," Eliza nodded. "She's very…" she started, but then paused, unsure of what word to use to describe Melinda Friar. _A common affliction._

"I think you've got it covered with 'she's very.' Because yeah, she is," Maya told her sister. The girl gave a laugh. "In a good way though," she had to add. Intense as the woman could be, Maya would stand at the head of her defense squad, any day, for who she was under that intensity and all she'd done for her, and Lucas, and now for their boy.

"What are we going to do there?" Eliza asked now, and admittedly Maya could see why she'd ask, why she might prefer going to the Hunter Hart house, where she and Wyatt could hang out with the other kids.

Almost as though the universe was listening, they were just arriving when Maya got a phone call. She could see Melinda making her way out to greet the car's passengers, as she would, when Maya answered her cell and found herself on the line with a woman from the bridal shop where she'd bought her dress months ago. She wanted to know if Maya would be available to come in that afternoon for a fitting. She was supposed to go out there in a few days, but now…

"Hey, you two want to go see the others again?" Maya turned to Eliza and Wyatt in the back, and as she received a couple of eager nods, there was a knock at the car window. Holding a finger up for Lucas' mother, she'd told the woman from the shop that she would be there and hung up. "Sorry, I had a call," she rolled down her window. "So, uh, change of plans, I'm going to drop off those two back with my dad and then I have to go try my dress at the shop, you want to come?"

Of course, Melinda Friar wanted to come, and a couple minutes later she was sitting in the car with them as they drove off to the Hunter Hart house. Eliza was just a bit upset now, for not being taken along to see the famous dress, too. It had taken most of the ride to convince her, mostly playing on the notion that she was to be everyone's babysitter again and she was needed there, and to have her smiling again. She was left with Shawn, her and Wyatt, too. After thinking about it briefly, Maya had decided they should bring Elliott along. Much as it gave her a brief sort of nightmare flash of him filling that place and its racks of finely expensive dresses with the stench of one bad diaper, it still made more sense to have him there with her.

Also, Granny Mel would be all too happy to look after her Junebug, same Nana Katy once they picked her up from the theater.

Also, maybe she still just didn't like being away from him.

"Your mother is alright to work?" Melinda asked as they drove to pick her up.

"She's been lucky enough to be able to do most of it from home, but every once in a while she still needs to go in," Maya explained. It was hard not to look at her mother and be in this state of constant concern that something might go wrong with the baby again, even though everything had been mostly smooth sailing since that one day at the clinic. Katy herself had been extra careful with this pregnancy, this second son expected for November. "She's stopping in a few more weeks though."

When they arrived at the theater to collect Katy for the unexpected trip to the bridal shop, it took a few minutes for Maya to even make it to her mother's office, an effect she'd come to expect whenever going anywhere with the baby, especially anywhere that brought her in contact with people she knew to some degree or another. For several of her mother's co-workers, who had known her since she was thirteen, it was the first time they saw Elliott as anything more than a photo or a video. He was soon to be held by one person or another, who would melt and turn into the silliest version of themselves, much to Maya's amusement.

Finally, there was her mother, having been drawn from her office by the sound of voices and that telltale sort of pitch that came in dealing with small children and babies. Maya explained the reason for the visit, and soon they were headed out of the theater and on their way to the bridal shop.

If seeing the theater people go into baby talk mode was fun, seeing the men and women at the bridal shop go from very polished, very pulled together, into cooing voices and funny faces was just something else above that. None was happier to see little Elliott Friar than the woman who had helped the pregnant young bride find her dress all those months ago. Selene had been essential to her finding what she needed on that day, and to allow Maya not to lose herself in how she had to try those dresses over her growing belly and how she wouldn't know what she'd look like once she put it on after the baby was born… Now she was here, and though it wasn't exactly part of her job, she had wanted to see to the fitting herself, which Maya appreciated.

Ever since Elliott had been born, as she and Lucas were working out their parenting skills for the first days and weeks, there had been another thing they needed to think about, and they had to admit that they hadn't done as much of it as they could. After the birth of their son, the next big thing coming down the pipe was their marriage, their wedding… It had seemed far away when they'd gotten engaged, even when they'd set the date, but now… Now it was just two months away, even a little less than that. They were going to have to start thinking about it more and more, which was easier said than done with a one-month-old baby, plus Eliza and Wyatt staying with them, and soon enough Sam and Cara as well… They'd already been talking with Kermit and Abigail about sending those two along in the next couple of weeks, while they finished up back in New York and followed along for the move. Plus, Lucas was working, and in a matter of weeks he'd be starting school again, out here in Austin for the first time since they'd moved to Houston… And there was her mother and this baby, and…

The wedding… Today was about the wedding. She took a deep breath, leaving Elliott in Granny Mel's very capable – and very eager – hands as she followed Selene behind the curtain and went about changing out of her clothes to put on the dress.

Looking at herself, standing there in her underwear while the saleswoman got the dress ready, Maya couldn't help but consider the changes her body had undergone in the last year. Looking back on the first time she'd been in this shop, she really hadn't been so big yet. She'd been growing, sure, but until not too long before that day she'd still been able, with the right clothes, to keep her belly hidden. Thinking about what she'd looked like near the end, it really had been next to nothing.

Since then, she'd reached the end of her pregnancy, she'd had Elliott, and after that, well… She wasn't back to how she'd been before, of course not, but she had found herself somewhere about where she'd been, now that she thought of it, the day she'd first tried on her dress, where she could almost put on the right shirt and no one would know, unless they knew her. From there… She'd thought maybe she'd be more concerned about losing that baby weight than she actually was. She would get there, she believed it. Except, well, there was the wedding, and this dress, and she had in mind that she'd look a certain way on her wedding day. The best she could do was to try and eat right, and as for exercise, well… once she'd recovered from the delivery to some degree, she had the baby to look after, and she had her walks with Pappy Joe… It would have to do, wouldn't it?

"Is it weird if I want to keep my eyes closed for now?" Maya asked, as Selene asked her to step into the dress.

"If it is, then we spend our days doing nothing but tending to weird women," the woman chuckled. "Do us both a favor though and wait until you've stepped in, then you may shut your eyes and let me do the rest. Does that sound alright to you?"

She could still remember what it had felt like when she'd put the dress on for the first time. She remembered the feeling it had left her with, especially her concerns over the price. That had been seen to by the people she loved, who loved her in return… It had still been difficult for her to just sort of accept this generosity, after they had received so much already, in anticipation of Elliott's birth. And now, as she waited to see how it all looked, maybe a part of her had needed to keep her eyes closed because she was scared of how it would all turn out, and if that generosity had been worthwhile.

"What's the matter?" Maya asked, eyes still closed, when she heard Elliott crying from beyond the curtain.

"Nothing to worry about, dear," Melinda replied, in a tone directed at the baby she'd be attempting to calm. Maya hated how little she was managing to resist running out there to see for herself, but she stayed where she was, as Selene seemed to speed up to finish, like she expected her to run, too.

"All set now," the woman told her, pressing her hands to Maya's shoulders. "Just one last thing, let me just do this…" She felt her hair being pulled together and twisted over her head, pinned in place. "There, better. Would you like to look now or should I open the curtain?"

She opened her eyes first. It had been hard not to get distracted because of Elliott's crying, but now that she could see herself, and now that she could hear him settling down, it was like no time had passed. She remembered the feel of the dress, and now that it had been adjusted… Her first reflex was to reach over to the back of her neck, where the dress would close, to see… well, to see _if_ it would close.

"All the way to the top," Selene assured her, and Maya breathed, nodding to herself.

She touched the fabric carefully, felt at her midsection, all about, checking for herself that nothing felt too tight anywhere, or in any way out of place…

"Still a little tight?" Selene asked knowingly.

"A bit," Maya admitted.

"Yes, well, now your wedding is still a couple of months away, yes?" She nodded. "Then I would trust that things will find their way by then. You'll be coming to see us again before your big day." The words and the voice said 'trust me,' and Maya genuinely did. "Ready to show?"

"Yeah," she smiled, taking a breath as she moved to turn around.

To her credit, Selene stepped out and took charge of the baby, leaving the mothers of the bride and groom to stand ready for the big reveal. They had seen it before, sure, but it had been so long, and so much had changed… To look at them, as the curtain was pulled back, you would think they had no recollection of seeing Maya in this dress before. One thing was for certain: they loved it. Maya couldn't stop smiling, and as she turned back to the mirror, looking at herself from all angles she could, to see the front and the back… As good as the reactions from the moms had been, there was one in person in particular she could not wait to show this dress to. She would have to, of course, for a little under two more months…

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	45. Stormy Night and Day

_Chapter 45_  
_Stormy Night and Day_

After a few days of either going to her parents' or leaving her siblings with them if she had somewhere to be, Maya had known she needed to do something more for them. Much as they loved hanging out with their big sister and The Baby, or with the twins and MJ, they were still kids, in the middle of summer, and they needed so much more than this if it could be given. Finally, the Saturday after the dress fitting, the idea had come about to see if they might be able to get them in summer camp. It would already have begun, and getting them in there now might have been an issue, but they'd checked with Kermit and Abigail – and with the kids, of course – and they had agreed, so they had put in some calls. Soon, they had Eliza, Wyatt, Nellie, and Gracie signed up, along with Sam and Cara once they'd make the trip over, which would happen the following week.

Monday was the first camp day, and Maya drove them out there, meeting more than her parents as far as familiar faces went. She ran into Dot Cassidy, Lucas' aunt, who was dropping off her two youngest, Dora and Alex. They chatted briefly, as twelve-year-old Dora really wanted to get to hold baby Elliott for a little while. Dot offered to drop off Eliza and Wyatt back at the house that afternoon, which Maya happily accepted, once she'd told her brother and sister and made sure they'd be alright with it.

Maya went back home after this, and as Pappy Joe took up his great grandson for some quality nap time, she went ahead and got to picking up around the house. It had been a bit more hectic, with Lucas at work and her siblings in the house, and it wasn't exactly a mess but it was enough that there were things she'd keep seeing and wanting to clean without ever getting around to it. Today was the day when she'd get around to it.

"I think I'm turning into a clean freak," she told Willow, phone balanced between her ear and shoulder as she frowned at some stains on one of Wyatt's shirts before tossing it into the machine.

"Sounds about right," Willow chuckled. "I look at Zola sometimes like I'm just waiting for her to spit something up on herself."

After her call with Willow, Maya checked in with Billie, who by any rights should be having her baby any day now. As upbeat as she always was, it was clear now that she was getting to that very definitive 'oh please just get this kid out of me' stage.

Maya had just taken Elliott up for some quiet feeding time when the rain started, in early afternoon. She thought about her siblings, off on their first day of summer camp. They might not get to play outside much this time around, but they should still be having fun.

As the afternoon progressed, the rain went from a sort of peaceful shower to something less and less calm. The wind was picking up, sending the rain lashing against the windows… There was just the slightest rumble in the distance, like thunder and lightning wouldn't be far behind. The clouds were getting into that dark and foreboding shade. Elliott was in that very particular fussy mood now, and Maya just kept him permanently in her arms, kept walking along with him… But she also worried over her brother and sister out there. Eliza wasn't scared of storms, as far as she knew, but Wyatt definitely was… and so was Gracie…

"They're not going to get here any faster that way," Pappy Joe called to Maya as she stood at the window, keeping an eye out for Dot's car when she knew the camp would have let out.

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" she turned to look at him with a smirk, focusing back on Elliott when he started to cry again. "I know, sprout, I know…" she told him before starting to hum his favorite lullaby, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

Finally, there was the car, and as it stopped Pappy Joe was already making his way out, with his big umbrella, to go and get the kids from there to the house. Eliza came hopping out, and even from back inside the house Maya could tell she was talking a mile a minute, telling Pappy Joe about what camp had been like that day. Meanwhile, Wyatt got out of the car and made a mad dash for the house, rain be damned. He just wanted to be inside.

"Oh, hey, okay, okay…" Maya moved to set Elliott down before Wyatt could come barging in. The baby didn't sound too happy about this, but it was either that or having the four-year-old boy clinging on to her, too, and her being unable to deal with him. If that wasn't enough, of course, the sudden activity, coupled with the brewing storm, would get the dogs fired up. They were here now, barking and nearing the open door like no amount of training was going to keep them in very long with that kind of stimulus. And now in swept Wyatt, leaping for his sister, who barely caught him. "It's alright, bud, it's just rain."

"Don't like it," Wyatt grumbled.

"No, it's not fun, I'll give you that. But you're here, you're fine. How was your day?"

"It was _so_ much fun!" Eliza came in now, while Pappy Joe shook out the rain from his umbrella outside and came in a moment later, shutting the door. "This morning, we went to the pool, and then at lunch we watched a movie while we were eating, it was like a picnic. And then after that we made mugs out of clay. We're going to paint them tomorrow when they're ready. I have two new friends, they're going to the same school I'll go to. One of them, she did my hair, see?" she pointed to the braids dangling on either side of her head.

"They're very nice," Maya chuckled, "What about you?" she looked to Wyatt, or tried to at least, as his grip made it hard to turn and see his face.

"Don't like it," he repeated.

"What don't you like, the camp?" Maya asked, rubbing his back.

"It's just the rain," Eliza knowingly explained.

"Why don't you hand him over here, I've got the perfect remedy for the rainy day blues. What do you say?" Pappy Joe came up into Wyatt's line of sight. "Tell you what, I know you're scared right now. I had a little one just like you. My Tom, he'd just grab on to my leg when there'd be a storm out. But then he'd hear his baby sister crying, and scared as he was, all he would really want would be to make sure she was alright." Maya could just imagine them in her mind, and it was impossible not to think about what those storms would have been like, after Tom's little sister had passed away. "Look at the baby right there," Pappy Joe told Wyatt. "He's scared, too, because he's too little to know that it's just rain, and wind, and that it'll stop. He needs reassuring. Can you do that for him?"

There were a few seconds of all of them just standing there, as Wyatt considered his options. But then, finally, his hold started to loosen and Maya was able to put him down. He went over to where Eliza had gone and picked up the still crying Elliott. She sat on the ground with him, and Wyatt joined her, taking his nephew's little hand.

"It's just the rain," he whispered. He hadn't conquered his fears, not exactly, but he always wanted to help look after his little nephew. Whenever he was around and it was time to change a diaper, he would be there, fetching things for whoever was doing the actual changing.

By the time Lucas had arrived home from work, the storm had not let up, and in fact it was only getting worse. They'd barely managed to finish dinner when there was one heart rattling clap of thunder. The power went out, and the chaos came on. Dogs were barking, and both Wyatt and Elliott were hollering, which sent the others in action to calm them down. It was a good thing there were enough of them so that Lucas and Eliza each saw to one of the dogs, while Maya and Pappy Joe saw to the boys.

"Looks like it might be until morning before they can fix it," Lucas reported, a few minutes later, as he hung up the phone. He'd gone up to where Maya was trying to keep the baby reassured, keeping his voice low for their boy as much as for the other boy, presently in the care of their personal Santa. They didn't want to worry Wyatt any more than they had to. "How's this guy doing?" Lucas asked, setting his hand to Elliott's back.

"Oh, he's hanging in there, I think. Aren't you, sprout?" Maya looked to the baby with a smile. He responded by pitching a new wail, gripping at his mother's shirt. "Then again not… aaand I think he just pooped." They turned to look at Wyatt. He was not in the mood to help anyone right now. "I'll do this one solo then."

When she returned from upstairs, her son with his fresh diaper now snug in his sling, Maya found that Operation Keep Calm had evolved into lamps posted to light up the living room, while a board game was laid out on the coffee table. Pappy Joe sat on the couch, while Lucas and Eliza worked to set up the pieces. Wyatt sat nearby on the ground, with Trix and Lou piled up around him.

"Are we doing teams?" Maya asked.

"We can't, there's five of us," Eliza pointed out.

"There's six if you count Elliott," Pappy Joe told her. "I'll team up with him."

"But he's a baby, he can't play," Eliza told him.

"Yeah, but I'm old, so it balances out," Pappy Joe replied, which made the girl laugh.

"Alright, so who's going to be my teammate?" Lucas looked to the three Hart siblings. While Maya tried not to smirk, she and Lucas watched the other two, both of them looking torn by the choice. Finally, Eliza had looked to her little brother.

"Who do you want to play with, Wyatt?"

The game saw them through to bed time. After a lot of indecision, Wyatt had decided to tag team with Lucas. It meant he got to sit in his lap, which was apparently the safest place to hide out from the storm. Whenever the thunder would strike, he'd startle and Lucas would close his arms around him.

"I know they've barely been here a week and a half, but I think this might be a good experience for Eliza," Maya told Lucas as they went back down the stairs. "Out here, she gets to be the oldest, and she's really stepped up."

"I've noticed it, too," Lucas agreed with a nod. Tonight, with a lamp as their night light, Eliza had allowed for her little brother to come and bunk with her, because he was still afraid. Maya and Lucas both expected to have one or two small visitors through the rest of the evening and into the night, but for now, with any luck, they would remain where they were and get some sleep. "If this had happened next week, they would already have had someone there with them," he added, alluding to the fact that, rather than try and add two more beds to the room, Sam would bunk with Wyatt, and Cara with Eliza, for the duration of their stay, until their parents made the trip and they all moved into their new house.

"We've been doing okay so far, haven't we? With them up there, and him here," she looked to Elliott asleep in his sling.

"More than okay," Lucas nodded.

"And once we have the others, too?"

"Even better," Lucas promised, which made her smile.

The 'visitors' came in the middle of the night, when the sky decided to have a light show. Maya was just getting back to bed after feeding the baby, and Lucas was awake, as no matter what the sound of his son's crying would wake him up, when a creak in the floor made them look to the door and find two pairs of eyes staring back at them.

"Come on," Lucas opened up the covers like a trap door, and Eliza and Wyatt came climbing in, burrowing between him and Maya. This time, Wyatt chose his big sister as partner, folding himself into waiting arms.

"Just close your eyes and pretend it's fireworks, you like those, yeah?" Maya whispered at his ear. He nodded. "Then it's the fourth of July all over again."

The power only returned about an hour after they'd all gotten up the next morning, but by then the storm was over and the daylight helped to make things feel about as normal as one could hope. After breakfast, Pappy Joe decided it was time for a good walk along his usual circuit, and he wanted everyone else to come along. After a night of being cooped up in the dark, there could be nothing better.

"Maya, look at the tree!" Wyatt pointed out ahead, more alert than they'd heard him be since his return from camp the day before. Out ahead, they could see one of the trees beyond their land had been struck by lightning. "Can I touch it?" the boy turned back to his big sister.

Before she was able to give an answer, affirmative or negative, Maya's phone rang and she took it from her pocket to find it was…

"Hey, Ainsley, how'd you guys do with the storm?"

"Oh, fine. Cameron loves them, go figure. The louder, the better," Ainsley Ellis informed her former classmate, though in a rapid fire tone that said she wasn't calling about that. "Just got a call from Jonah. Billie went into labor early last night, don't know if she's had the baby yet, but they're at the hospital now and I wanted to give you the heads up in case you want to go, too. Brianna and I are on our way, I called the guys…"

"Right, no, absolutely. I'll meet you there!" Maya smiled, stalling Lucas – who now wore the sling and the baby today – by holding to his arm. After she hung up, she relayed the news to the others. "What do we do? We have to get these two to camp," she looked to her siblings.

"I want to see the baby!" Eliza declared, which soon got Wyatt's vote, too.

"Don't you want to go and play with your friends at camp?" Lucas asked them. This brought conflict in their choice. "I can call my aunt and see if she'd dropped off Alex and Dora already. Otherwise we'll drop them off and swing back to the hospital after.

In the end, Dot was able to come and get the kids, so Pappy Joe stayed back to wait for her, while also keeping watch over his great grandson. If it looked as though they would be at the hospital for a long time, they would see about getting him up there with them, so Maya could feed him.

"Hey, how's it going? Is it over?" Maya asked the rest of their group – minus Willow, who was coming but still on the road – as they arrived at the hospital and found them there in the waiting room.

"Still waiting," Aaron stood from where he'd been sitting next to Marius, who had baby Simone in his arms. He came up to greet them both. "How about that storm last night? How did you do?"

"Between my siblings and the baby, a bit… complicated," Maya replied.

"Simone spent the whole night faking us out. We'd finally get her to calm herself down and we'd put her back in her crib. A minute later, she would be at it again. All night."

"Oh, no," Maya tried and failed not to laugh.

"She seems to be doing better now," Lucas remarked, looking to Marius.

"Oh, sure, like she'd be caught acting out here," Aaron joked.

"I never liked storms, and whenever there'd be thunder, it would startle me so much I was afraid I'd go into labor," Brianna reported, their 'last belly standing.'

"Cam kept going to her to try and reassure her," Ainsley smiled. "It was really sweet." On this, Brianna had to agree. She had been staying with the Ellis mother and son since just a couple of days after their visit up to the house. The move out of her parents' house had been difficult, to put it mildly, and the first few days at Ainsley's had been quiet ones. But now she looked determined more than ever to stop looking to what was and instead start to look toward the future, with her and Jay, with their baby… whether it was _his_ baby or not.

"Hey!" They looked up to find a frazzled-looking Jonah coming toward them. One look at his face and they knew that expression. It was the face of a new father, eager to share the news. "You're here, hi!" he hugged here, clapped shoulders there.

"How'd it go? How's Billie?" Maya asked.

"She's great, she's so great," Jonah nodded firmly. "We have a daughter," he announced, to many cheers from the waiting group.

They left the new parents some time to bond with their little girl, and for Billie to get some rest, but already an hour later they were eager to introduce the newborn to their friends, so they went to see her, in two groups. Maya and Lucas were joined by the newly arrived Willow as they went with flowers and gifts in hand. Their fiery haired friend sat up in her bed, looking as serene and bright as ever, as she looked upon the bundled up babe in her arms.

"Well, she's got your hair," Maya commented with a grin as they walked in.

"My mama says it's not a recessive gene in our family, it's a survivor gene. It'll cling and find you at every turn," Billie shook her head, never tearing her eyes from the baby sleeping in her arms. "Ain't she the sweetest thing?"

"Coming from you, what else could she be?" Maya pressed her friend's shoulder, giving her a light hug. "Did you pick a name yet?"

"We did," Billie confirmed, finally looking up, to find Jonah. He was coming around now to sit with her. "This little girl here, she came around with hell breaking out there, like she wanted to make damn sure to make a dramatic entrance."

"So she's yours alright?" Willow guessed with a chuckle.

"Got that right," Jonah laughed, getting a half-hearted glare from Billie, who turned a smile back to her new daughter.

"Maya, Lucas, Willow… Meet Stormy."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

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_See you next week! - mooners_


	46. And I Am Home Again

**_A/N: Hey everyone!_**_ I was thinking, with most everyone isolated these days, I might try and do something extra on here along with the daily (and weekly) chapters. I wanted to do maybe like... deleted scenes. Like, if there are moments from throughout the stories in the main timeline of this universe, from 2017 up to now, as well as in this alternate timeline, that were not covered in chapters and people might have wanted to see played out, I could write them and post them as I do them. Let me know if that is something that would interest you and what you'd like to see! :)_

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_Chapter 46_  
_And I Am Home Again_

"Hey, little man…" Lucas whispered, carefully lifting Elliott out of his crib. The sun was just barely rising outside the window, turning the many leaves on the mural tree different colors than the ones painted on the wall. "Who are we going to talk about today?" he asked the baby, who didn't so much point as move his arms as he would have done, question or no question. Lucas looked at the leaves and focused on the first one his eyes landed on. "Uncle Dylan, good choice. Plenty of stories about him for me to tell you, how am I going to pick just one?" he asked, sitting in the rocking chair.

That was how their mornings would start, whenever he had to work. Doing his best not to wake Maya, he'd get up for a little one on one time with Elliott, knowing he wouldn't see him again until he got back at the end of the day. About as soon as the tree had gone up on their wall, it had become tradition for Lucas to pick out a leaf, a person, and tell his son a story about them. Sure, he wouldn't remember any of it, but it was thirty, forty minutes with just the two of them. Elliott would be staring up at him as he spoke, and Lucas would be just as captivated by that little face, and it would start his day as brightly as he could hope for it to start.

Today, he told Elliott about a story of Dylan, back in their Ninja Turtles days. He had to hand it to Maya, she did a pretty good job pretending like she wasn't awake back in bed that morning. He couldn't say for sure whether she was awake for 'story time' _every_ day, but he'd say that more often than not she was listening in… Not that he'd bust her on it. The way he saw it, she deserved to have a bright start to her day, too.

When she finally showed herself stirring, as though she was just now waking, Lucas got up from the chair, slowly walking back to the bed with the baby, so he might sit next to her.

"Hey, my two favorite people…" she beamed. As though the sound of her voice had alerted him to her presence, Elliott had started to make sounds as though he was about to start crying, and so Maya sat up, the better for Lucas to pass her the baby. "Morning, sprout," she turned that sunny smile to their boy, holding his small hand in hers.

Today was a bookstore day. He had three days there, and two at the pet store. He mostly worked at the registers on the ground floor, though they'd have him fill in on one floor or another whenever they needed the extra hands. That was not the case today, which meant that, on the whole, he didn't get too far from his register for very long. He did a decent job of generally looking focused on some thing or another whenever he didn't have anyone to ring through, though in his head he'd be off somewhere else and thinking about something or someone very much needing of his attention.

Right now, the list of subjects was on a constant and unbroken cycle: wedding, school, baby.

He and Maya were getting married in just under a month and a half. Much as they would both tell themselves that they wished they could just fast forward and go through with the wedding now, they did sort of need the time they had left, didn't they? They had done a fair amount of planning a few months back, but that had mostly been anything they could do back then, anything that needed to be done before Maya was too far along in her pregnancy… And then eventually all their energy had been focused on the end of the school year, and the move, and settling in, and then along had come Elliott. There was no part of them that was able, any part that was very simply awake enough to decide 'I'm going to work on wedding plans now.' It had taken weeks, and finally they'd gotten back on track, but now the clock was really starting to tick, making those last seven weeks feel like they would go so slow and so fast all at once.

As they entered this home stretch toward the day he and Maya would say their vows, Lucas felt… oh, he felt ridiculously happy. Much as they had probably never envisioned the two of them getting married as soon as they would be doing it, with him twenty-two and her twenty-one, it was just as they'd said, ever since he'd proposed to her. Whether they got married this year or five years from now, or more, they would have known all along that this was where they were headed. Yes, Elliott coming along had made them readjust their schedule, but the end goal had not changed. They had envisioned for a long time already that they would spend their lives together, that they would be making a family together. Now they had done that, and they would vow to carry on doing it, til death did them part.

He was nervous, too, but only really in the way that you'd get nervous in looking forward to something for so long that you just wanted it to get here already, and to all go smoothly. It was hard not to feel like ever since last Halloween they had been sent on a course that cautioned unexpected, whirlwind changes. One second they had been starting off their second year of college, moving along as they were supposed to, and the next they were preparing to become parents, to move away from Houston so they might be closer to their families, which meant leaving their friends behind as they all continued doing what they'd been doing… without them.

For him, it was going to be just a bit easier. Yes, he was going to be attending a new school, with new professors, new classmates, but he would be continuing otherwise unchanged on his path. And in two years' time, he would be rejoining some of his classmates from Houston as they started the next phase of their educational goals. It wasn't as though he would be going in there completely blind, as he was about to discover.

"Lucas?" He looked up, finding a familiar smiling face staring back at him from across the counter where he stood. It was familiar, definitely familiar, though it took him several seconds of staring at the young woman to pinpoint exactly where he…

"Ramona!" the name blasted out from his memories, and it made her laugh. "Wow, I'm sorry, I just… it's been a while."

"Don't worry about it," she told him. "I wasn't sure where I knew you from either for a second there, and then your nametag kind of helped me connect the dots. Though I could swear I heard someone say you'd gone off to school outside of Austin."

"I did, yeah," he confirmed, remembering after a moment that he was working. He pulled the items she'd set on the counter and started ringing them up. "Last couple of years, I was in Houston, but I'm back here now, transferred and either continuing or starting over, depending on how you look at it."

"Why'd you come back, wasn't working out?"

"No, it was great, but Maya and I wanted to be closer to our parents after we found out we were having a baby," Lucas explained, and alright, he was kind of happy to see that little look of surprise and excitement on his former classmate's face.

"What? Lucas, that's amazing, congratulations!" Ramona nodded. "When are you…"

"He's coming on seven weeks now," Lucas was ahead of her, pulling his phone from his back pocket and showing a picture. "His name's Elliott."

"He is precious…" Ramona breathed, taking up the phone to have a closer look.

"So what about you? You're going to school out here?" Lucas asked, taking his phone back and letting Ramona know how much she owed.

"Yeah, starting my third year in the fall," she nodded, taking her card from her wallet to pay.

"Shouldn't you be on your fourth by now?" he asked. The two of them were the same age, should have graduated the same year, and so she should have been ahead of him since he'd had his suspension…

"Should, yeah," Ramona nodded. "I took a year off after high school," she explained. "I had a chance to attend this program for a year, so I took it. But that's a good thing, because that's how I met my boyfriend. He goes to school in San Antonio, but if all goes right, we should end up in the same place sooner or later." As she went on telling him about her studies, and her 'medium distance' boyfriend, Lucas was left to realize something very important:

"We're going to be in the same program then?"

"Looks that way," Ramona smiled, clearly just as happy over this development as Lucas was. "Here," she took her bill when he gave it to her and gave it right back to him. "Write down your number so I can text you and then we'll be able to keep in touch before the semester starts." He did as requested, and she took the receipt back. "Great. See you around."

Watching her go, Lucas had been filled with relief. He at least knew one person at his new school now. Oh, he was sure he'd run into a bunch of his former classmates, the ones who would have ended up going to school locally instead of leaving the city, the state, or the country, but this one would be right in his classes. More than that, especially now that her year away had gone and put them back on the same level, he would more or less be back on track with that path he'd had to leave after his suspension.

They would have started school for nearly two weeks by the time he and Maya would be getting married. It might have been easier for the two of them to do this before he started classes, but even if it had been the middle of the semester, or the end of it, finals and all, he would have kept whatever date he and Maya had chosen as the one that was to be their anniversary together. And they had happened to select the third day of September, so that would be the day, their day. He might have actually started to dream about Maya in her dress. He'd never seen it, so he could only imagine what it might look like, and it didn't always look the same, but one thing never changed, and it was that he would look at her and oh… she would be so beautiful.

Now, in his dreams, when he would watch her walking down the aisle toward him, he would also see their baby boy. Sometimes he'd be in Maya's mother's arms, or his mother's, his father's… Sometimes Lucas had him right there in his own arms, like they were both waiting for Maya to reach the altar, reach them.

He kept his phone in his back pocket, solely in the event that Maya called him and told him anything might be wrong with the baby. Alright, sometimes, like today, he also took it out so he might show a picture of his and Maya's son, but that was on the rare occasion that he might run into someone who had not seen him – like Ramona – or that he… had a new cute picture to show one co-worker or another. That was slightly less rare, but he was usually pretty good about only doing this when there were no clients, or when they were on break…

Elliott was still so little, so it would be normal for him to miss him so much when he wasn't with him, right? He loved his boy… There were no words to describe how much he loved him, and had loved him, since before he'd even been born. From the day he had been brought into the world though, from the moment they had put that small, crying human in his arms, he'd felt that love take hold of him like nothing else he'd ever experienced in his life to this point. Maya had carried their boy all this time, and there was nothing that would replicate that feeling in Lucas, but to hold him for the first time, that… That had been something he'd waited on for months and months, and his expectations were far surpassed, in half a second. So, yeah, it was more than normal for him to miss his boy as deeply as he did whenever he was at work.

When the day was done and he left the bookstore, Lucas was quick about getting his errands done, which included a diaper run, before heading on toward home. He knew they were still a long way from it, but Lucas already found himself imagining the days when he would come home and Elliott would be there, excitedly waiting for him, running for him with that bright smile he would have, so like his mother's…

Instead, for now, he did get as close to that feeling as he could expect to get from the boy who wasn't even two months old. When he came along and found him lying at ease near Pappy Joe as he watched television, he crouched into the baby's line of sight, and the way he looked at him… It genuinely felt to him like his son saw him and his brain lit up. _There's my daddy._ Lucas smiled, lifting Elliott into his arms and feeling like all was once again as it should have been.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Maya had taken the opportunity, with Pappy Joe looking after the baby, to call and check in with Kermit and Abigail back in New York. In two days' time they would be sending Sam and Cara to join their siblings in Austin. As worried as she'd been for how it would go, having just two of them at first, on top of the baby, it really hadn't been so much of an issue.

Sure, her siblings were in camp, and she had Pappy Joe there as her back up with the baby most of the time when Lucas was at work, but even so it hadn't always been a breeze. She never minded relying on Pappy Joe when Elliott was at ease, but then every now and again he would pitch a fit and then it would fall back to her, had to, and by the time she'd get him to settle down again, she'd just be exhausted. But then she'd look at her son, and she wouldn't mind so much the exhaustion. And she would hear her siblings' stories from camp when they'd come home, or she'd listen to what they were excited to be doing in the morning, and she'd know they'd made the right call having them come over when they did.

From what she heard now, Sam and Cara could not wait to make the trip, too. All their stuff had been packed, and they couldn't really help much with what was left, so they'd be hanging out around the house most of the time, not doing much. They'd already had to say goodbye to their friends, who were either off on vacation with their families, or at some camp outside the city, or in some cases seemed to have forgotten about the two of them now that they were going away. It got to the point where they had started to campaign for an earlier flight, but Kermit and Abigail maintained that the two of them would stay until the morning after next, as planned.

"Maya!" Wyatt's voice was heard calling, not a minute after she'd hung up with his parents.

"Up here!" she called out, taking the laptop back to where it usually sat, on Lucas' desk. Turning upon the sound of a couple feet landing after a hop, she found her little brother standing there with what looked like half a paper plate, with holes for eyes and a string attached at either side, to create a mask. It had been decorated with paint, and glitter, and other odds and ends. "Friend or foe?" Maya 'gasped.' The masked 'stranger' lifted up the colorful thing until it no longer covered his eyes.

"It's me!"

"I thought that tooth gap looked familiar," she pointed to her own mouth, right about where her brother was missing a tooth. He'd lost it just a couple days ago, which had been bloody for a moment but overall a momentous occasion, especially with the promise of the Tooth Fairy's visit. The 'fairy' had made sure to safeguard the little thing to hand it over to Abigail when she'd be coming to Austin. "Put it back on, let me see," Maya came up and crouched before the boy, who did as told. "Superhero?" He nodded, which lit up a glitter-encrusted section of his mask. "Got a name?"

"Green Wizard!" he announced.

"I like it," Maya declared with a pronounced nod. "Powers?"

"Magic!"

"Sure, sure," she nodded. "Well, I feel safer already," she smiled, pulling him into a hug, which he happily returned. "I just talked to your mom and dad, and we were talking about how Sam and Cara will be here soon." Wyatt, to no surprise, was possibly the most anxious for his older brother and sister to be in Austin already, and the reminder that this reunion was getting closer was received with great enthusiasm. He had commanded the effort to make space in the nursery/guest room for the incoming occupants just last night, after dinner and before bath time.

"Can we make something for them?" he asked as they pulled apart and he lifted the mask off his face, leaving sweat and a bit of glitter on his face.

"What kind of something?" Maya asked, casually wiping this away and fixing his hair.

"Cake?" Wyatt suggested after a moment's thought.

"You have my attention," Maya grinned.

The welcome cake became a leading subject as they all sat to dinner soon after this, with everyone pitching their own ideas for flavors, design, decorations… After they'd finished and the table had been cleared, Eliza had suggested Maya might draw their ideas into existence. So paper and pencils were taken out, and with her brother and sister standing on either side of her chair, Maya had made a cake sketch artist of herself, following the cues given by her siblings.

The next day, while they were at camp and Lucas was at work – the pet store that day – Maya and Pappy Joe had gone off on an errand for cake materials along with Elliott. It was almost too funny to see Pappy Joe in the middle of those aisles of molds and tools, sprinkles and colors, especially whenever he'd point to something and go 'what's that for?' and she'd have to explain.

Back at the house, Maya had put 'Nappy Joe' to work as her assistant in making the cake batter, the frosting, all so the thing might be baked and frosted and assembled by the time Eliza and Wyatt came back from camp. She also made some of the decorations that required a bit of sculpting, all so that they could get on to the decorating part once they were through with dinner. After that, it would be early off to bed for the kids, who would miss morning at camp so to go to the airport and pick up Sam and Cara with their big sister.

"Tell you what, that is one good looking cake already," Pappy Joe declared that afternoon as he sat at the kitchen table, the baby held against him. Maya looked up from where she was scanning the whole structure in search of spots she might have missed.

"But how does it taste?" she gave him a look, finding he was munching on the bits she'd cut off to level the layers.

"Won't have trouble finding takers to eat the thing, I'll tell you that," he nodded, making her laugh. "I'm serious, you should do this more often."

"I'll just add it to all the things I said I'd do while on leave and never got around to," she shrugged, stepping back and nodding to herself. There was no more frosting to do. Now she had to get this thing in the fridge…

"You've got a newborn baby and the other kids to look after. Once they've moved in to their new house you'll be able to do something about all that," Pappy Joe promised her. "Need a hand with that?"

"I'm good, you just keep doing what you're doing over there."

Eliza and Wyatt were in proper round-eyed awe when they saw the blank assembled cake. It was just as they had envisioned it so far and they couldn't wait to decorate it. Without a doubt, it was the fastest dinner they'd had, from plates served to plates emptied, and the rest of them could only do their best to keep up. Finally, the table was cleared, the cake was brought out, and the decoration could begin. Much as they had envisioned the whole exercise to be something of a mess, they got through it with hardly any spills. When they were done, the completed look was met with approval all around. It was a perfect way to say 'welcome to Austin!' to Sam and Cara.

As prompt as dinner had been, bath and bed time had been the same. Coming back across the hall into their room after wishing Eliza and Wyatt a good night, Maya found Lucas was getting Elliott into a fresh diaper and onesie after _his_ bath. Coming up to the changing table, she breathed in that clean baby scent with a smile.

"At the risk of you laughing at me, I swear I had a really good 'mom day' today," Maya declared, as Elliott gripped at her finger.

"Oh, you did, huh?" Lucas just smirked.

"I was so on top of everything, nothing could stump me."

"Some guy tried to pick up too many bags of dog food at once at the store today. He dropped them, the bags burst, and I spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the floor and finding more of the stuff that had rolled away," Lucas countered, with playful envy. Maya bit back her laugh. "Yeah, exactly. Here," he picked up the baby and passed him over.

"Hey, sprout," Maya took him into her arms and brought him over to sit on the bed while Lucas picked up around the table.

"Oh, hey, do you remember Ramona from high school?"

X

The next morning, Maya and Lucas suspected that if not for the baby ensuring that they'd be awake very early, they would still have been asleep when Eliza and Wyatt came barging in. They wanted to get started with breakfast, they wanted to go to the airport as soon as possible.

"You want to go right now," Maya asked the both of them, after they'd finished eating and Lucas had left for work. They nodded. "You want to go right now, even though the plane won't arrive for like three hours after we get there," she elaborated. Eliza looked like she was reconsidering; Wyatt nodded. "Right… We're going to need some games or something."

She was getting much better about keeping her cool whenever she'd leave Elliott behind when she had to go out. It still didn't make her feel a hundred percent at ease, but compared to the first time, when she'd needed to be looking at him over Skype the whole ride out… Now she'd taken it down to feeling just a bit anxious and eager to be back. She knew that sooner or later he'd get old enough to understand she was going away from him, whether or not he also understood she'd be coming back. When that would happen, she might have to deal with his crying himself out and that would take her anxious feelings up to new heights again. That wasn't now. She had to remember that.

"Okay, I need… an action verb," Maya turned to her siblings as they sat and waited at the airport.

"Uh…" Eliza considered, as Maya casually drummed her pen against the back of the mad lib book she kept close to herself, to preserve the surprise of the finished result.

"Fly!" Wyatt offered. He loved mad libs, and he was getting very good at finding words. Maya could just see him showing up in class when he'd start school, ready to impress.

"Okay?" she asked Eliza, who nodded. "Fly… well, flew," Maya scribbled the word on its line. "Now give me a…"

"Is that their plane?" Eliza cut in, pointing outside. Every time she saw a plane coming in for a landing she would ask the same thing. But now…

"Uh, actually, I think so, look," Maya pointed to the board.

The mad lib would have to be completed later, as the trio went in wait of their arriving brother and sister. It had been easy for all of them to get lost in what they had going on in Texas and in New York, but now that they were about to be reunited, Maya had a feeling her four young siblings had never been so aware of how much they loved one another and wanted to be together. When they spotted one another, two here and two there, no power in the universe could have kept them from running to each other. They landed in a big pile of arms and voices piling up over one another, and Maya captured the whole thing, for her own benefit but especially for that of their parents, back in New York.

_Maya: Four down, two to go. Can't wait for you to be here with us!_

_Kermit: You and me both._

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	47. Brothers and Sisters

_Chapter 47_  
_Brothers and Sisters_

The whole way from the gate, to baggage claim, into the car, and off to summer camp, Maya had barely managed to get a word in, as Sam, Cara, Eliza, and Wyatt all spoke excitedly to one another. The first two would talk about their flight, and what the house had looked like before they'd left – nearly empty, stacks of boxes all along the living room walls – while the younger two would talk about camp, and their room, and their new friends, and the baby… There had been a couple instances when one or the other had almost tripped and mentioned the cake before they'd either caught themselves or been stopped by the other. Maya didn't mind her being ignored in that instant. They were all just so happy to be back together again, and Maya was happy for them, too.

They might have stopped and had lunch, all of them together, except Eliza and Wyatt were headed off to camp for the rest of the day, and neither of them wanted to miss the picnic lunch and movie combo, which was one of their favorite parts about the camp. Sam and Cara would be attending, too, but only starting on the next day, to give them the chance to settle in and relax after their departure from New York that morning. Anyway, they needed to get back to the house, so Elliott could eat, too. So, they would pick up something on the way back and eat at home.

"Hey, guys, hey!" Maya called out over the noisy mess of the backseat, eventually getting her siblings' attention. "If you look ahead, you will find that we have reached our destination," she informed them, in her best tour guide voice.

Climbing out of the car, the five Hart siblings headed off to where they might drop off the last two. They were very eager to make sure they weren't late, and to their relief they discovered they were right on time. The kids were in the process of grabbing their food and finding a space to sit before the movie started.

"Eliza!" a girl called out, drawing the girl's attention. The others turned to find a pair of girls her age, waving back at her from the lunch line. Eliza turned to Maya.

"Go, I'll see you tonight," she indicated the pair, and Eliza took off at once, only to veer back and return to hug her eldest sister and the two who'd just arrived.

"Can my friends come for a sleepover this weekend?" she asked Maya, who took out of her phone and handed it to her sister.

"Go and get them to put their parents' numbers in? I'll call and see what we can do, okay?" And Eliza was off again, a girl on a mission. In the meantime, Wyatt had spotted _his_ new friend, and he tapped his sister's arm to indicate him. "You want to go?" she guessed, and he nodded. "Alright, go on," Maya smiled, seeing how giddy he was, running to his friend. "And then there were three," she turned to Sam and Cara, ushering them back out.

Their lunch was picked up from the diner and then it was back off to the house on the lane. The drive from the camp and onward could have felt like a lot of repetition, as they'd ended up talking a lot about the move, and the flight, even though the others had already talked about it all with their younger siblings. Instead, listening to them, you would think they'd never told these stories before with how animated they were, and if Maya hadn't already been so glad to have them here at last, this would have gotten her there. It was like she needed to remind herself… they were here to stay.

They arrived at the house, where Sam and Cara decided to have their lunch outside, with Pappy Joe, while Maya took Elliott upstairs. By the time she returned, they had finished eating and Sam and Cara were back on story mode, telling Pappy Joe about their trip over while he sat there, the best audience they could ask for.

"Got yours on the warmer back there," Pappy Joe told Maya, who let out a very thankful sigh and went to get her lunch.

"Is Elliott sleeping?" Cara asked as she returned and sat with them.

"Yeah, he does that a lot," Maya told her. "Definitely my favorite out of his repeat activities, less noise, less stink…" Cara's face scrunched up while Sam laughed.

"I can't wait to see him," Cara finally declared.

"Yeah? I had no idea," Maya teased.

Cara got her wish a couple of hours later. By then, with lunch behind all of them and Pappy Joe off on his daily walk, Maya had taken her siblings through the house and then up to their temporary room, where they could go about unpacking the belongings they'd brought with them for their stay here. Neither of them seemed to mind that they were a bit crammed in, four of them in this one room. Then again, this might have been the closest thing they had to a normal looking room after leaving their slowly boxed up old home, so the closeness wouldn't have been so bad as a trade-off.

They were just finishing up in the small room when they caught the sound of the crying baby coming from the room across the hall. Cara turned to her sister at once, her eyes round with pleas.

"Let me just get him to turn off the sirens first, yeah?" Maya suggested, leading her brother and sister into the other room. Elliott's cries had evolved from 'I'm awake, where is everyone?' to 'hey, big people, seriously, where are you all?' volumes. "Alright, alright, take it easy," Maya hushed her son, lifting him out of his crib and holding him near, "Everything's fine, I'm right here…" she assured him, humming along.

Sam and Cara came to get a look at their nephew, teaming up for a bit of 'how about this face, will that cheer you up?' clowning. Eventually, after Cara had switched to singing, smacking her brother's arm until he'd join in, Elliott had stopped crying and she'd been allowed to hold him.

"That wasn't bad, you know?" Maya turned to Sam, locking her arms around him with a smirk. He just shrugged. "I'm serious," Maya insisted.

"I don't sing," he insisted right back.

"Just because you don't, doesn't mean you can't," Maya pointed out. "I swear I'm not concocting some plan to turn us into a family band or anything. I'm not even imagining costumes right now. I'm not even picturing you in a nice button-up… suspenders…"

"Sto-op!" Sam protested weakly, making his sister laugh and hug him tighter as she planted a kiss atop his head. His protest fizzed out. Playfulness aside, he was very happy to be here with his sister, his nephew… When Cara finally agreed to pass Elliott over, he showed an ease with the baby, honed in from years of big brother status with his younger siblings. This was different though. This was his nephew, and as excited as all of them were over the very idea of being aunts and uncles, Maya could just see how much Sam looked forward to being a presence in this little one's life as he grew up. For his part, Elliott looked very comfortable with both his aunt and uncle here today.

"Wow…" Cara exclaimed, finally getting a proper look at the mini mural tree with its colorful leaves. Sam looked at it, too, the fellow artist. They'd both seen pictures of it, but it really didn't capture what it was like in person, standing 'under' the tree.

A couple days after Eliza and Wyatt had arrived, the crib had been pulled away from the corner of the room. Maya's young siblings had looked upon the various color options and selected one each to have spread over their open palms and fingers before setting them to the wall, in what space they chose. Wyatt had wanted to be at the very top, so Lucas had lifted him on to his shoulders, holding him very carefully as he pressed his hand down as much as he could before lifting it away and looking upon his lime green imprint with a satisfied smile. Maya had then gone up, finishing out his leaf with her brushes and adding his name, just as she did the same for Eliza's turquoise hand, lower and nearer to her own.

Now it was Sam and Cara's turn. She'd asked if they wanted to do it, seeing as they'd already finished unpacking. Part of her was mostly just trying to minimize the chances of their ending up looking in the fridge and seeing the cake, but also she had been looking forward to having the last of her siblings' hands printed to the tree. They were just as anxious to get it done, so the crib was once again pulled back. Cara chose a bubble gum pink color for her handprint, while Sam chose a bold red. It was sort of fascinating to see how their two colors resembled one another, just as Eliza and Wyatt's had done, the two pairs distinct.

"Wyatt's hand is so small," Cara declared, looking at her little brother's leaf way at the top. Maya and Lucas would joke that he stuck out like a little bird poking out from over the highest branch and its leaves, which really suited him.

"You think that's small, look there," Maya smiled, moving up to point at the tree's 'trunk.' She and Lucas had set their own 'leaves' at the lowest, so nearest to where the crib top would land. Set just below and hidden, while the crib was in its place, was a handprint which hadn't been transformed into a leaf. The only thing added was Maya's finely traced lettering. _Elliott_, and just below, _31 May '23._ Rather than to try and put paint on the baby's hand, Maya had taken the prints of his hand and foot they had from when he'd been born and she had reproduced it, in perfect dimensions. In a few years' time, there could be more tiny hands there with their son's, and they looked forward to it.

Sam printed his hand, and Cara printed hers after him, the two side by side.

"Wait, wait, high five," Sam laughed, when Cara had been about to go and wipe her hand clean. She grinned now, and they pressed their hands together, pulling them back to look at the resulting mix.

"It's not a big difference," Cara declared. "But I like it." They looked at each other now, unsure what to do with this.

"Here," Maya found one of her sketchbooks and opened it to a blank page. Sam and Cara printed what they could of their pink and red hands. Maya wrote their names and the date while they finally went to clean up. With the two new leaves completed, the crib was returned to its place, and the three siblings stood back to take in the finished result. "That's much better," Maya nodded.

"Mom and Dad need to put theirs when they come," Cara smiled.

"What colors do you think they'll use?" Maya asked her.

"Mom will want orange," her little sister declared after a moment to think. Sam agreed. "And Dad…"

"Purple," Sam chimed in, and both his sisters felt it was right. Maya was happy at the thought that she actually knew this. "What happens if you guys move?" Sam asked now, looking back at the tree.

"That is so not in the cards," Maya told him.

"Yeah, but if you do…"

"But we're not, okay?" Maya nudged his shoulder, so he left it alone. The question may have come up before, mostly in the back of Maya's mind, but it felt like opening up a whole thing that didn't need opening, so as best as she could she would try not to think about it.

Between lunch, and unpacking, and painting leaves to the mural tree, they had nearly passed through the whole of the afternoon and the time until the others would return from camp. Sam and Cara wanted to go and play outside, see what was around the house, so Elliott was set in his sling and Maya led her siblings out on their exploration.

They were still outside, where Cara had been demonstrating her ability to do cartwheels and a few flips from gymnastics class, when Maya spotted a familiar car coming up the lane and smiled.

"Incoming!" she pointed, and Cara just managed not to faceplant as she tripped mid-flip and turned to look where her sister had pointed. "Careful," Maya laughed apologetically.

"Who is it?" Sam asked, not recognizing the car.

"Lucas' aunt," Maya told him. "Two of her kids go to the camp, too, so she drives Eliza and Wyatt back in the afternoon. You met them at the hospital when Elliott was born, didn't you?" The way her younger brother's face followed the widening of his eyes, she guessed he did remember them. In particular, he remembered one of them. Lucas had told her all about how Sam's first encounter with his cousin Dora had gone, in the hospital waiting room. She hadn't even thought about all that until just now when Sam's whole demeanor had gone and shifted into something halfway between panic and anticipation. "Come on," Maya smirked, leading her brother to where Cara was already jogging to meet up with the car and its passengers.

The car's back door opened and Eliza hopped out, her little brother right behind her, and Lucas' cousin after him, giving Wyatt a hand to hold as he came down. As she emerged fully, the fourteen-year-old spotted Cara first and waved at her, before seeing Maya with the baby and Sam at her side. She waved at him, too, and Maya bit back a laugh, seeing his hand raise somewhat dazedly.

"I love your bracelets!" Cara exclaimed, seeing the many friendship bracelets fastened at each the older girl's wrists. There had to be seven to ten on each side, in a multitude of colors and patterns.

"Thanks," Dora smiled, turning her wrists about, looking at the woven strings.

"Did you make them?" Cara stepped up to get a closer look.

"These ones," Dora showed her left arm. "The others came from some of the others at camp," she went on, showing the right arm now. "I can show you how if you want." At this, Cara turned back to her sister.

"Can they stay?" she asked Maya, who swore she heard her brother gulp.

"Uh, well, that'd be fine by me, depends if they can though," she explained, looking to Dot Cassidy as she'd also stepped out. Sitting in the front passenger seat, thirteen-year-old Alex Cassidy hadn't come out with the others, though he'd crawled across and into the driver's seat, where he could look out the open window and wave to his cousin's fiancée.

"I don't see why not," Dot told Maya with a smile. "I'll call Emmett and have him come with Junior." At this, Cara turned back to Dora with a grin, and the older girl scooped her along by the hand and led her off toward the house. Eliza ran after them, and Wyatt after her. Meanwhile, Alex finally had to come out of the car, and he walked over to Sam to reintroduce himself. They were the same age, sure, but with Sam being grades ahead in school, it almost felt like they weren't. Still, they walked together as Alex asked about flying on a plane without his parents there and how that had gone.

Lucas returned from work no more than an hour after the Cassidys had started to arrive, the Emmetts, senior and junior, having arrived twenty minutes before him. Emmett Sr. was presently holding the baby and telling Maya about the first time he'd held baby Lucas. When they spotted him, both Sam and Cara came over and greeted their future brother-in-law, seeing him for the first time since they'd landed in Texas that morning.

"Lucas, look!" Cara showed him the bracelet on her arm, in pink and yellow and blue and white. It was not brand new of this day, instead having left Dora's left wrist. "She gave it to me! And I'm making one now," she pointed to the safety pin stuck just at the cuff of her shorts, from which the partially woven strings dangled.

"Looks great," he declared with a nod, chuckling as she hurried back to where Dora was helping Eliza with her own bracelet. "Hey, Sam," Lucas tapped the boy's shoulder as he approached. "No bracelet for you?" he asked.

"N-No, that's okay," Sam shrugged, scratching at the back of his head. "I already know how."

"Well that's great, go for it then," Lucas told him, and Sam managed to shake his head in a way that felt both emphatic and discreet. "Hey, Dora, Sam here says he knows how to make those, too," Lucas called to his cousin. Sam looked like his eyes would burst from his head.

"I have more string!" Dora replied with a smile.

"You'll thank me later," Lucas whispered to Sam. "Go on."

"But I…" he protested, whispering back.

"But you what?" Lucas challenged him to finish the sentence. Sam couldn't do it, but it didn't mean that the overall sentiment wasn't right there on his face, or that he wouldn't know Lucas would be able to see it and understand it. "It's just bracelets, bud."

So, Sam went and sat across from Dora, selecting colors when showed him the bundles in the pencil case where she carried those, and the small scissors and the safety pins she'd need. There were also small strips of paper that looked to be pattern instructions for various designs. She was all set. Sam picked out the things he needed and went about starting his own. When Dora smiled, clearly happy that he'd joined them, Sam looked like he almost forgot what he was supposed to be doing for a few seconds there.

The bracelet making had to be put on halt a little while later, as dinner would be served. By then, Sam, Dora, Cara, Eliza, and Alex all had half-made bracelets dangling from one pant leg or another, though in Dora's case it was already a second, both of hers being 'commissions' requested by fellow campers. Her nimble fingers worked fast, and to look at what she created, you could see why she was in demand as she was. She'd already promised to make one for Eliza after her second one, and the eight-year-old looked like she could barely contain herself for the wait. Lucas suspected Sam would have made a similar request if he didn't get so tongue-tied around the Cassidy girl.

"Is it now?" Wyatt whispered to his sister after bolting from his chair to follow her, when they had finished dinner and she'd gone to check on the baby. She didn't need to ask what he was going on about. He wanted to know if they could bring out the cake.

"Right after I come down, okay?" Maya promised with a smile, continuing up the steps.

"Diaper time?" Wyatt inquired. He was back on the clock as her helper after all.

"Maybe," Maya laughed, motioning for him to catch up and follow.

The cake was brought out a few minutes later. Sam and Cara were instructed to shut their eyes, which they did, though to maintain the surprise a little while longer – the surprise that it was made for the two of them specifically – all the guests had to do the same, including Eliza and Wyatt. When they were all told they could look again, there were noises of surprise all around, everyone reacting to the reveal, none more than the newly arrived siblings. They especially loved the little figures made to look like them, sitting atop the whole thing, along with those of their newly reunited younger brother and sister.

"Today was so good!" Cara quietly declared as she climbed into bed next to her little sister later that evening. Normally, she and Sam were allowed to stay up an hour more than their younger siblings, but they had started their day in New York, and between the trip and all the activity that had followed, they were more than happy to turn in early.

"Yeah?" Maya asked her, trying not to look too much like the relieved older sister/guardian.

"We got to do so much," Cara nodded, settling down next to the already halfway snoozing Eliza. In the other bed, Wyatt was already down for the count, while Sam looked like he was trying to pass himself off as already dozing off, though they could see him absently turning the string bracelet around his wrist. "I'm really glad we're here now," Cara told her older sister. It made Maya smile and reach down to embrace her.

"We're right across the hall if you need anything, okay?"

"Okay," Cara nodded, pulling back and settling in. Eliza turned toward her and huddled close.

Maya said goodnight to her siblings, shutting the light as she stepped out and shut the door most of the way. Heading out across the hall, she did the same for the door to hers and Lucas' bedroom, where he stood by the window, looking out, with their son in his arms.

"According to Cara, today was a big success," Maya reported, smiling. Lucas turned to look at her as she came up toward him, looking on to the sleeping babe he held.

"It really was," Lucas agreed. If his own feelings on the matter weren't enough, he could see it on her face, too, and on her brothers and sisters' faces as he'd said goodnight to them earlier. It left the young parents with an outlook they would carry through in days, and weeks, and years to come. Today was great, tomorrow would be better.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	48. One Day With, One Day Without

_Chapter 48_  
_One Day With, One Day Without_

"I don't know how I let you convince me to do this," Maya breathed, walking about the length of the room and back, holding Elliott close all the while. He wasn't crying, wasn't in any kind of distress, but in her heart it felt like deep down he would know, and soon he would react.

"You're making it sound so much worse than what it is, you realize that?" Lucas gave her a look, even as he tried not to appear in any way amused when she was clearly fretting over the prospect of what was to come. "It's one day out, one day to yourself. The only times you've been away from home, without the baby, in the two months he's been alive, it's only been for airport pick-ups and dropping off your siblings at camp, at friends' house, or at your parents'. This will be good for you."

"His feedings…" she shook her head, looking down to Elliott, who was in no way helping her point by just chilling in her arms.

"I've got the bottles you pumped," he reminded.

"He's never had one of those before, what if he won't take them?"

"He will." She was backpedaling so fast on the decision, and if it went on any further she would just not go anymore.

"How can it be good for me if I'm going to spend the whole time worrying about him?" she asked, like she'd finally discovered the great flaw in his plan.

"You don't have to worry. _I'll_ be with him," Lucas went up to her, setting a hand to her back. "And as much as you need to have this day, to be out there for yourself… I've never really gotten to look after him all on my own for any real amount of time since he's been born."

She opened her mouth to reply, to disprove this claim, but the seconds drew on and she stopped… He was right. It had always been him and her, or him and Pappy Joe, or him and one or more of their parents, even him and her siblings. The longest, uninterrupted one-on-one time he would have had with Elliott, even with the technicality that she'd been in the room, asleep, was the night he was born.

"Fine…" she breathed out, bowing her head to kiss the top of their son's head. "You know, I'm starting to think the reason he smells so nice is so we won't want to let him go," she joked, though in that special way when she was only speaking the truth. It made him laugh anyway.

"You've uncovered his master plan."

Their four young guests across the hall were soon up and about, and so the day officially began. Pappy Joe was off in Houston, visiting his nephew and his family, so it was the seven of them without him. They had breakfast, and once they'd all gone and gotten dressed for the day, Maya was to go off on her day to herself, with the challenge to remain out and about until after dinner. Dot Cassidy was coming to pick up the four young Harts before long, bringing them back to her house for the day, which would leave father and son with the house all to themselves.

"Okay, I'm going to go," Maya told Lucas as they watched Dot's car drive away with her siblings. It sounded much more like she was telling herself, not telling him.

"And we'll be right here when you get back," Lucas nodded, holding out his arms to receive the baby, who was still held by his mother. Maya passed him over, absently checking to ensure his little socks were on all the way, because she just had to do _something_.

"You know I'm not being like this because I think he won't be okay with you or anything, right?" she looked up now, and Lucas kissed the top of her head, not unlike she'd done to Elliott not long ago, in much the same gesture of showing love.

"I do," he promised.

"Okay… okay," she went and got her bag, making one last pass to look in on the now sleeping Elliott before walking to the car, getting in, and driving off along the lane, away from the house. Lucas watched the car go, and if he was being honest, he'd say he remained there for a good few minutes with the expectation that Maya would have ended up turning the car around and driving back to the house after changing her mind.

"Five minutes," he looked down to his son. "Looks like your mom made it… Unless she's just parked up the road, trying _not_ to come back already," Lucas frowned to himself at the prospect. "I shouldn't call to make sure, should I?" In response, Elliott made a noise which soon escalated into full out, screeching cries. "Hey, no, now, it's okay," Lucas carried him back into the house, carefully shutting the door as he tried to reassure the baby and to reassure _himself_ that this wasn't exactly what Maya had predicted. "You just ate," he established, leaning in to get a whiff, "And your diaper is still good from last time… You're okay… we're okay…"

He had only spoken the truth when he had pointed out the importance of this day for his own interests as much as Maya's, but it took until right now, as he held his crying boy and felt a twinge of something like helplessness for Lucas to realize it was so much more than that. A moment like this, where it was just the two of them, entirely just the two of them, it just… it hadn't happened. He'd been home for a few weeks after Elliott was born, but then of course so was Maya, and so was his grandfather… And then he'd started work, so he would be away from the house for so much of most days. Now here they were, in the first days of August, one month off from his and Maya's wedding, and for the first time he was the one and only person around to look after his own son.

Part of him was feeling something very similar to what he could only identify as fear. What if he couldn't do it? What if he did something wrong and there was no one there to do anything about it? Maya… Maya was so good with him, it was like a superpower. And it made sense, didn't it? She had carried him all those months in her belly, and she had looked after him from the day he was born, so much so that the very idea of leaving him behind now had taken work. He knew that her case was special, that there were those issues she'd carried through her life from when her father had left her and her mother, but even so, she'd looked like she was being asked to leave a vital part of herself behind, and then Elliott, when her absence had had time to mature for a little while…

Lucas carried him up the stairs, Trix and Lou now hot on his trail. They weren't barking, like they knew it would only unsettle the baby even further, but they were not going about their days anymore, they were on Elliott Alert. They followed him all the way into the bedroom, where he sat down on the rocking chair, still attempting to calm the baby down. _You need to calm down, too… You're stressing, and he'll sense that… Breathe…_ He had done this before, he had held his son, he had gotten him to stop crying. This was no different. He kept the baby close to himself, hummed his lullaby, rocking slowly along the curve of the chair's joined legs. He didn't stop, kept humming and humming. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine that Maya was there in the bed, pretending to be sleeping as she would do every morning when he'd get up and 'Elliott' would pick a leaf from his mural tree and his father would tell him a story about the person named on that leaf. This morning, he'd told his son about his faraway Aunt Isadora.

It was one of the best parts of his days, very high up there, and to put himself back in that scenario was one quick shortcut toward relaxing. It did just that, and as a result he wasn't the only one to regain peace. In time, he realized that Elliott wasn't crying anymore.

"Hey… Isn't that better?" he could only smile, watching his son now grasping at his shirt, as he so often would. "You remember that, huh? You're good here…"

They stayed in that chair for a while longer. It wasn't that Lucas was concerned that Elliott would go and start crying again the second he stood, but… Well, no point in testing the theory, right?

Eventually, when he saw that the baby was asleep, Lucas carefully stood and set him down in his crib. The dogs settled down right there, proper guards for their young human brother. Taking the baby monitor with him, Lucas made his way down the stairs.

The house was silent, still… There was something so specific about the sound of a room when you were the only one there, in the room but the rest of the house, too, like you could actually feel it. He wasn't completely alone, no, there were the dogs, and there was the baby, but with all of them resting upstairs he might as well have been. It made his surroundings feel so different, like day to day he would be _in_ the house but not aware of the house. Now, he was seeing the house.

It was not messy, but it definitely had that sprinkling of messiness that became more or less accepted with there being an infant living in the house, an infant and several children at the moment, too. If Maya were here today, she would have set herself to picking up right about now, they both would, on those days when he wasn't working. It was part of her morning routine, and she'd grown attached to keeping that routine, another thing this outing would have taken her from. So, he went along and did the tidying up, all the while keeping his ear tuned to the monitor he carried along with him.

Before long, he would be done, and then… then he would get to do something he'd never done before. He would get to feed his son. Up to now, Maya had been solely responsible for this, for obvious reasons, and he knew that for some time still, if she wasn't away as she was now, she would maintain things as they had been. But in moments like these, when it would be just him and Elliott, there would be the bottles. He'd gotten one of them ready now, taking it upstairs to find a hungry guy waiting on his lunch.

"This is going to be different from what you're used to, but trust me, this is what you're after right now, yeah?" he picked up the fussing baby and brought him to sit on the bed, taking up the bottle.

It took a little while for him to reconcile the difference, and there was a small moment when Lucas considered he might actually have to call Maya back, if the baby wouldn't eat, but then, finally, Elliott had accepted the bottle, and they were good to go. Looking into that little face now, Lucas felt a new swell of happiness. They'd had a rocky start that morning, but now here they were, father and son, and they were alright.

It could have been that spending hours on end with no one for human company but an infant would have soon made him feel like time was crawling by, leaving him to wonder when Maya and the others would return, but it was far from that. If anything, the afternoon seemed to speed on by. After the adventure of lunch, Lucas had taken their morning stories into overtime. Instead of telling Elliott about someone whose name was on one of those leaves, he'd told him about someone who was absent from the tree, someone who had unfortunately not lived to press their hand to that wall, but oh… someone who would have loved nothing more than to press a bit bright, sky blue paint there on same branch as Pappy Joe's forest green hand. He told Elliott tales of who would have been his great grandmother, Susannah.

"One day, it started to snow…"

X

Maya had not stopped on the road in contemplation of a return. She had made it all the way to the point where the lane diverged toward town… Then, she'd stopped. She didn't want to do it, knew deep down in her heart that this would be a lot like admitting defeat, but really, if she didn't stop… She might have lost control while the car was still in motion, and that wouldn't have been good.

She didn't lose control… not entirely, just… Her mind was going so much faster than the car, too many thoughts, too many ideas conjuring up images in her mind's eyes, tossing in colors like a frenzied artist with many brushes and a great big blank canvas.

She wasn't going to cry. She wanted to, part of her wanted to, and not even because she'd left Elliott behind but because leaving him was affecting her this much. _That_ was what was making her lose it just a bit, the idea that she couldn't even leave her son with his father, with _Lucas_, who she loved and trusted more than anyone in the world, without feeling like she was doing something wrong. In all the months since she'd learned of her being pregnant, of having this baby boy growing inside her, she had never predicted this feeling and how it would take hold of her, from deep in her guts until it could not be dislodged. Even after Elliott had been born, it had not manifested right away, not until… well, not until she'd had to go somewhere and leave him, and then she'd felt that chain, anchored in her.

She wasn't going to turn around and go home. If she did that, she'd never leave him again. Lucas had been right to talk her into it, one more reason for her to quit worrying so much. She had to keep going. She wasn't even sure what she was going to do, hadn't made a plan… Maybe she needed to make a plan… It would be so easy for her to go and see her parents, or Lucas' parents, or join her siblings at the Cassidy house, or go visit any of her local friends. She could even drive all the way to Houston and see her friends out _there_… But no, she couldn't, that wasn't the point of this day. If she went to visit anyone, she wouldn't be accepting this exercise of just taking time on her own.

"Alright, need to drive now before some cop sees me out here and comes to see if I'm fine. 'Don't mind me, Officer, I just missed my son so much I couldn't drive anymore. Two months old, never left him. That won't make him all clingy and weird when he's grown up, will it?'" she intoned to herself, then flinched when she thought she saw a cop car and imagined her scenario was about to come true. She drove on.

With no real plan for her to follow, Maya did… pretty much what she would have done years ago, when she couldn't be where she wanted to be because she had to be somewhere else. Back then, it had been school, back in New York, now it was her own home, with her baby boy. She went to the mall.

Walking around, looking into one store, walking on, looking in, walking on… her mind was met with two lines of thought that sort of caught her off guard. The first was the presence of a number of mothers with strollers or slings, mothers with newborn babies of their own. It pried a thought of her own baby right from her heart, so much that she could practically feel the familiar weight of him in her arms, latched on to her in peace… except of course he wasn't there, he was home. _With Lucas, safe, happy…_

The other thing she saw, the other thought, came at her when she'd see girls walking along, girls who were clearly her own age and in many ways similar to her for other reasons, but at the same time so, _so _different. It was hard for her to unravel the feeling it caused her. Yes, the difference came of the fact that they were all somewhere about twenty-one, like her, but they probably didn't have a kid, unlike her. But the part that caught her up wasn't the part where she had a baby and they didn't. It was that, for a while, she'd forgotten how young she was.

It wasn't as though she regretted any part of her life, not for a second. She loved every single part of it, being engaged and soon married to Lucas, living in their house on the lane, raising their son together. She wasn't in school at the moment, but eventually she would be again. They had started their future early, but it had always been their future. Seeing those girls though, it was actually… kind of a good thing. It was the kind of wakeup call this whole day had been meant to give her, in a way. It reminded her of who she'd been, not one year ago. Somehow… she was going to have to find a way to bring her past and her present together, so that she was every part of herself again. She was Lucas' fiancée, Elliott's mother… and she was an artist, a musician. She was going to be a teacher someday.

She went to the art store. She spent a couple of hours there, browsing, exploring, conjuring up a new project for herself. She might not get to put it into action until after her brothers and sisters moved into their new house, after Kermit and Abigail came out here from New York, but it would be there waiting for her in a few weeks' time, just a couple away from the day she and Lucas would be getting married.

It wasn't until lunch time rolled around and she was moving through the food court that her rollercoaster ride down into worries and up into discovery came to a stop and she started to think about home, about her guys… Her days had become so structured around looking after the baby, on feeding him when it was time for him to eat, that being here now, even as she knew Lucas would be taking care of it… It still felt like she wasn't doing what she was meant to be doing. _Deep breath, stop going down that road…_

She wasn't so hungry, even after she'd bought herself something to eat and sat at the nearest free table she found. She ate, but her thoughts were still on Elliott. Looking to her bags from the art store, occupying the rest of the table space next to her tray, she hesitated for no more than a minute before nudging the tray out of the way and fishing out a fresh sketchbook and the bag holding the individual pencils she'd picked out.

Blank page in front of her, a fresh pencil in one hand, half a sub in the other… She drew, and she ate her lunch. When her straw could pull nothing more from her cup, she looked to the page before her. She'd been so caught up in what she was drawing, she hadn't even paid much attention, given over to the idea stemming from her brain and flowing to her hand. She had drawn a girl running along a road, a dog running after her. Missy Sanderson, with her Coraline. Maya smiled, satisfied with the end result and also with the feeling it gave her. There'd been just this small hiccup there, as she'd come to the food court, but she felt better now. She was ready to go on.

Now she just needed to figure out what to do next.

Oh, there were plenty of errands she could have run, or she could have gone and looked for new clothes for Elliott, as though he lacked for anything in that department, when part of his corps of overactive grandparents included Melinda Friar. She wasn't going to go see a movie, that was just an opportunity to spend two hours sitting in the dark and stressing over the fact that she wasn't doing anything. If she was going to get back in touch with her old habits, well, the solution should have been easy, especially after she'd already gone to one of her two top spots. After dropping off her bags in the car trunk, she went back into the mall and over to the music store.

She missed the band some days. She would find herself singing Elliott to sleep and realize she was singing a TXNY song. Quitting the band had been easy only in the sense that she'd known it needed to be done, but it didn't mean she cared so little for that part of her life that she wouldn't miss it once it was gone. She still loved music, loved making it… Whether she'd ever find herself on a stage again, she couldn't say, though she'd be lying if she said she didn't hope the answer would be yes, but… Months ago, she had taken it upon herself to continue contributing to this world she loved so much, in one way if not in the other. She might not have been stage bound anymore, but she had been a songwriter as well as a performer in her band, and she could still do the writing, for her friends, for anyone else who might need it…

She hadn't been hearing much with regards to the new TXNY lineup following her departure, and she couldn't say whether it was because the others hadn't really done much of anything about it since she'd quit, or if they just didn't want to tell her, in case it affected her in any way… or if she was simply too busy with the baby to be aware of anything in that department. She had to remember to ask about that. Maybe she could write for them again.

By the time she started to be hungry again, she realized that it was nearly dinner time… And if it was nearly dinner time, then it meant… she'd done it. She had been out here for something like eight hours. Should she have been thinking about Elliott more? Was it bad if, for a little while, her thoughts had agreed to hold to the knowledge of his safety with his father as a valid reason _not_ to focus on her son so intensely? It made her think about all those evenings, as Lucas returned home from work, so happy to be there again, with her, with the baby…

One quick dinner later (no drawing this time), Maya got back in the car and she started for home. She could feel her anticipation in her, and maybe it was a bit ridiculous, but she didn't care. This feeling in her heart, it was love, it was her bond to her family, and it was carrying her back to them. She wished she could be able to convey it in some physical form, that her boy would understand this was the thing that would always, _always_ bring her back to him at the end of the day. Even if she couldn't, she was going to do her best, one day after another, to show him that it existed.

Dot had brought back her siblings by the time she pulled up to the house. Lucas' aunt stood on the front porch, the baby in her arms, while Lucas chased Sam, Cara, Eliza, Wyatt, Dora, and Alex along. The six pursued were a chaos of shouts and laughter, and Lucas was a rampaging bear, snatching them up when they weren't fast enough, as was the case for Wyatt Hart, hoisted off the ground in a mess of giggles before being 'rescued' by his big brother, who 'scared' the bear into releasing him, and thus the chase was on again. It only ceased when the bear noticed her standing there, observing the scene with a smirk, and then he was coming for her.

"You lift me, I'm making a rug," she warned with a laugh, so rather than lifting her he merely enfolded her in his arms. "Yes, bear hugs are more like it," she breathed. Just to be held by him, to catch the familiar scents of home and the baby on him, that tiny bit of stress which had stayed with her all through the day now finally released. She was back, her family was here, and all was well.

"How was your day?" Lucas asked.

"Good, better as it went, best right now," Maya hummed. "How was yours?"

"Full of discoveries, the good kind," he nodded. "But I'm so happy you're back now, and I think there's someone else who shares this feeling back on that porch."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	49. New York to Austin

_Chapter 49_  
_New York to Austin_

"I got him, I got him, just watch. Hey, Elliott… Elliott…" When the baby's eyes found him, whether for the sound or actual recognition of his own name no one could say for certain, Dylan twisted his face into his most comical expression. He was standing just behind the couch, where Riley was holding the boy. On either side of her sat Rosa and Sophie, while Chiara and Kayla were flanking the devoted mime. The whole group had been determined to see if any of them could trigger Elliott Friar's first genuine smile. So far – and they had been at it for almost an hour – they had all failed, one after the other, although Rosa insisted she had seen something like a smile when she had last tried.

"That is a fart," Maya casually noted, poking her head in to see the results.

"Might be more than that," Riley scrunched her nose as she stood and tested her estimation. "Definitely more than that…"

"Hang on a second," Maya told her, moving to poke her head out the door. Out on the lawn, the four Hart kids were facing off against the three Cassidys and their cousin Lucas, countering the heat of the summer day with the aid of an array of water guns. "Assistance!" Maya called out. At once, Wyatt dropped his water gun and made a dash for the porch, where his big sister dropped a towel over him. "Feet, feet," she instructed, and Wyatt sat down, wiping his feet dry. Soon, he was following her back into the house, where Elliott was retrieved and taken upstairs to get changed.

"All done?" Wyatt asked, when he had done all the steps he had gotten to learn in previous weeks. He might have been the one person who was ever happy to learn Elliott needed changing. By now, all Maya had to do was call out that she needed assistance and he would be reporting for duty… or another similar sounding noun almost too appropriate for the task, as his other sisters would giggle over.

"Yup, all better," Maya reported, stalling herself from saying anything along the lines of 'I don't know what I'll do without you,' in case it caused her little brother to feel in any way conflicted when his parents would arrive in Texas and he wouldn't be living here anymore. That day was coming faster than he thought… literally.

"I can go back now?"

"Go for it," Maya nodded before picking Elliott back up. "Remember what I told you?"

"I'm small, and I can use it to get them," Wyatt recalled her advice.

"Aim for the big one," Maya smirked, seeing the mischief rise in her brother before he took off to return to the battle. "Now, you," she looked to her little sprout, perched in her arms. "I know those goofs downstairs are trying to sway you, but don't feel like you need to perform, you keep some of that for me and your dad, okay?"

Maya would look at her little boy, her sprout, day after day… Now and then she would be looking at him and it would go and strike her, how he was starting to change, to grow. He was only two and a half months old, he was still very small, all things considered, but he wasn't as small as he'd been the day he'd been pulled from her, and that was as amazing as it had the ability to make her heart skip a beat. Just in the way she would hold him now, compared to those first days and weeks… He could hold his head up, not entirely, but still to some degree, and he would look at her, and at Lucas, and Pappy Joe, all those people he came across the most, but the three of them the most, and… he knew them. He was looking at her now, and it would just make her feel overwhelmed, in a good way.

"Alright," she breathed out, "Let's get back down there. They all came out here to see you, didn't they? I get it, I'd drive two hours to see you, too." Elliott reached out his little hand, prodding at her face, which made her laugh. "I'll take that as 'same,'" she nodded, kissing her son's cheek before heading back down to the living room.

While they had been upstairs, by the looks of it, her visiting friends had stepped out to watch the ongoing 'battle' happening between the Harts and the Cassidys out on the lawn.

"Alright, who's winning?" Maya asked as she joined them. Sophie turned to her with a smile and hands held out, and she happily handed the baby over. The future officer received the boy with glee sparking across her face and she forgot about the water fight at once, focused instead on the fair-haired babe.

"Well, your brother came barrelling out here like a hellion a second ago," Rosa declared, pointing over to where Wyatt was running around, practically roaring and splashing everyone that wasn't Sam, Cara, or Eliza. No one could catch him, and it might have been the funniest thing they'd seen all summer.

"He's got to be running out of water," Dylan commented, just as his prediction came true. Rather than slow him down though, it only paused him briefly, as Sam swapped with him, likely recognizing the better odds if Wyatt remained active. He jogged over to where he would be able to reload, soon to be joined by Dora Cassidy as she needed to do the same.

"So it's just not going to end?" Chiara pondered.

"Not as long as they don't tap out," Riley shook her head.

As entertaining as it was to watch Lucas and his cousins get owned by three kids aged ten and under, Maya found it hard not to get distracted by what was going on over by the water hose, as her brother and Lucas' other cousin were both refilling. Sam was holding one of the empty water guns while Dora held the hose in place as she pushed strands of hair out of her face. If her brother thought he was being covert in how he kept sneaking glances at the girl standing across from him, he really had no idea. If Dora wasn't so focused on her task, she would definitely have caught his looks. It wasn't inappropriate or anything, just hard to watch without laughing just a bit. He was lucky everyone else was too preoccupied by the battle to even notice.

When they finished with both of the plastic guns, Dora appeared to thank Sam for his help, which involved her leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. It froze him to the spot for just a moment, long enough that his adversary reasserted herself and gave a shot of her reloaded water gun, splashing him before she took off at a run with a laugh like a ringing bell. Sam shook she surprise away and chased after her, regaining his position as she did, though if he hoped to retaliate he would have to be quicker about it, as she leapt away from his shots every time. Maya really wished she could have recorded the whole thing.

In time, the field of battle was reduced by half, as the Hart sisters and Cassidy brothers retreated to the house for water, and dryness, and relief from the heat thanks to the air conditioning. After this, Lucas bowed out, to take Wyatt back into the house before the four-year-old wore himself out. With only two left, Maya could just tell Sam was caught in something of a debate. Part of him wanted to concede victory, but then if he did that would Dora call him out on it? And if he beat her, would it really be any better?

The whole thing came to a draw in the end, as Dora realized she'd lost one of her bracelets and started to scan the grass at their feet. Sam wasn't about to take a win from a distracted opponent, so he abandoned the battle in favor of joining the search, It took a couple minutes, but finally Sam reached down and stood back up, brandishing a bracelet made of three shades of blue in lightening shades followed with white. He and Dora moved to meet, and he reattached the lost band around her wrist. She looked back up at him when he was done, and from where she stood in the shade of the porch, Maya swore that – given all of ten more seconds – it wouldn't have been Sam's cheek Dora would have kissed this time.

But then a car approached along the lane and, as it turned toward the house, rang its horn once and then once more. Sam and Dora both looked back in surprise, just as Maya did, along with the few who were still outside. Even though she knew who this had to be, it still took Maya a moment to confirm as she squinted to see the passengers. Meanwhile, Sam recognized them, too, and he turned to tell Dora before they both ran up toward the car. When it stopped, Abigail Hart climbed from the passenger seat, the better to hug her eldest son, water and sweat be damned.

"Mom!" Cara called out, as she had come to see what the horn was about. Now she was running to join her brother, too, diverting around when she spotted Kermit coming out of the driver's side. She just about leapt into his arms, and he caught her. They hadn't been apart all that long, all things considered, but it really didn't matter at this point. They had missed one another dearly.

"I thought you said they were coming tomorrow," Riley turned to Maya.

"It was easier to make sure they'd have the surprise that way," Maya shrugged, smiling as her brother and sister escorted their parents up toward the house along with Dora. Kermit was on the verge of reaching for his eldest daughter, a great big smile on his face, when Eliza came shooting out the door and into those open arms. She held on so tight, there would have been no releasing her. It had been so much longer since she'd seen her parents.

"Hey, there, Lizard," Kermit picked her up, held her tight. The tremor in his voice made Maya's throat seize up just a little, like all this time a small part of him had feared that something could happen between the day she and Wyatt had been sent off to Texas and today, when they would be reunited, that would make it so he'd never see his youngest daughter ever again. But now she was here, and he was embracing her.

"I have waited to do this from the day you offered to take the kids," Abigail decided to wait her turn with Eliza by going around and hugging her stepdaughter.

"It was nothing, they're family," Maya insisted, hugging her back. "Also, they've been a big help."

Going by the fact that he hadn't followed his sisters, she could just guess that Wyatt remained unaware of the surprise arrival and was instead trailing along after whoever currently held His Nephew. As the group walked into the house, she found this person to be Dylan, who was back to his tricks in trying to get Elliott to laugh. Wyatt was giving it his best shot, too, which seemed to involve a lot of face squishing and tongue pulling. Maya cleared her throat, and they both looked up.

Wyatt's eyes turned to saucers. At once, he ran for his parents, where he was briefly torn as to who he might jump on first. Kermit pulled him up into a hug, showing some of that emotion again. He may have failed with Maya in the beginning, but he had grown into a better father with the years. Wyatt… That was his baby, his youngest. He had only ever seen him at his best.

There was a lot of talking back and forth for a while, as the kids remained confused by the early arrival, and what it meant for the move. At the same time, the sight of their parents was like a compulsion, pulling from them one story after another, things they had been dying to tell their mother and father about. They had sort of been hoarding these, the last week or so, on the basis that they would soon get to tell everything face to face, and that was always better than through a screen.

The last of their belongings, the kids would learn, were set to arrive in two days. Kermit and Abigail would spend those nights at a hotel. This left the four Harts presently staying with their big sister with a choice. They could stay here until moving day, or they could go to the hotel, too. It was a strange choice to make but, seeing as they would be near enough as to see Maya every day no matter what, they chose the hotel. They would soon enough be joined by Elizabeth Hart, who had gone out to visit her daughter and granddaughters in Tucson on the last stretch of this move.

"My turn now?" Maya smiled when her father finally approached her, no more interruption to their reunion. Kermit held her face in his hands for a moment, observing her, before hugging her as she returned the gesture. It wasn't so long ago that she wouldn't have dreamed of this, but now… Now she was so happy to see him.

"As much as you want," Kermit told her, and there was that tremor again. When they pulled back, she met his eye, a silent question extended. _Is everything alright? Are _you_ alright?_ He gave her a nod. All was well; he was just emotional.

At this moment, Lucas had approached them, after retrieving the baby from his uncle's arms. Kermit and Abigail had not seen Elliott since just a few days after he'd been born, not in person at least. All the photos and videos in the world could not substitute seeing him again in the flesh, especially as he was passed into his grandfather's arms.

"Hey, little man," Kermit beamed. Elliott almost didn't look sure for a second, but he settled soon enough. "He reminds me so much of you…" Kermit looked back to Maya, his emotions thrown for a loop once more, to be with all his children once again, and his grandson on top of everything.

What had started off as a visit from their Houston friends had turned into something more, now that Kermit and Abigail had joined them. By the end of the night, only Sam and Cara had put the pieces together as to why they had made the cake for their parents the night before, when they hadn't been expected for an extra day. Of course, there had to be a cake for them, too, as there had been with the arrival of the older Hart siblings, and it had been all of them working on it this time. It had amused the freshly landed couple a great deal.

Eventually, the group out of Houston had to go on their way, with a long drive ahead of them. Emmett Sr. had previously come to gather Junior, Dora, and Alex. With the kids getting sleepy from their water war, the newly instated Austin Harts would not hang around much longer either. They would take off for their hotel, which meant leaving the house, packing a suitcase with the essentials. As they had all gone up the stairs, Wyatt had spearheaded a mission to get his mother and father to add their leaves to the wall tree.

"It's late, bud, they can do it another day," Maya assured him.

"But it's important," Wyatt insisted. "For the stories."

"The stories?" Abigail inquired with a smile. Lucas explained how he would sit with Elliott every morning and pick a person from the tree to tell a story about.

"First thing tomorrow, okay?" Maya told her little brother. "It's better if there's light," she told him, so he agreed, if slightly reluctant on the effort. "You can still show it to them," Maya suggested, a peace offering of a compromise. Wyatt's face lit up and he grasped his mother's hand, waving for his father to follow, too.

As they went in and had a look, Maya and Lucas had gone across the hall to help the others pack. Even though they had known this would be the day, and even though they had suspected that, after weeks apart, there would be no question where the four of them would choose to go, somewhere in the middle of their packing, it suddenly became real. Sam, Cara, Eliza, Wyatt, their temporary roomies, were going away. Even though it had always been temporary, and even though it had been in many ways more work than they should have had to handle, what with an infant to look after, _their_ infant, the first one… Even though there had been all of that, as the time came for them to say goodbye, to send them on their way back with their parents, Maya and Lucas felt sad. They would miss having the four of them in the house every morning and every night.

The closer they came to leaving with their parents, the other four looked like they were getting on to that same line of thinking, too. Cara and Eliza both looked like they were on the verge of tears, even though they literally would see each other again the next day, which did not help in keeping their big sister with a dry face either.

"They'll be fine," Sam told Maya and Lucas, his way of saying 'I'll take care of them.' Maya responded to this by embracing him, and Sam returned the gesture.

"Anytime you want to come over, or talk, about anything, you know where I am," Maya told him.

"I know," Sam told her.

"Really, anything," she pulled back to meet his eye, tossing in a wink. Now he knew what she was going on about, and as weird as it might have sounded, she would hold on to that brief look of panic on his face that came along whenever anyone alluded to his raging crush on Dora Cassidy.

As was to be expected, Wyatt was the hardest case when it came to leaving. After they'd been upstairs to look at the tree, and to look in on the sleeping Elliott at the same time, the four-year-old Hart boy suddenly became hesitant at the thought of leaving his sister and Lucas. Who would help with Elliott when he had to get changed?

"We'll be alright," Lucas promised. "I can be her assistant now," he nodded to Maya. "Even if I won't be as good as you." Maya shook her head at this before nodding and pointing to Wyatt, confirming that he was indeed the better assistant. It would only do so much, but it at least got the boy to say good night and go with the others. Maya and Lucas watched them drive off, the car quickly disappearing into the night.

"Does it feel more quiet to you?" Maya wondered as they went back inside. "I know it's late, and even if Pappy Joe wasn't spending the night at your parents' almost everyone would already be in bed, but… it's like I can feel it. There's only you and me and Elliott right now…"

"And the dogs," Lucas chimed in.

"And them, yes," Maya smiled. "But that's it. Don't you feel it?" For a moment, neither of them spoke or made a sound.

"I kind of do, yeah," he finally decided.

"Do you know what this means?" she asked. He turned to her, looking like he had an idea but didn't dare speak it. She resisted the urge to mess around with him and instead got to the point. "Three weeks," she whispered, a new smile blooming on her face. Now he knew what she'd meant.

"Three weeks," he repeated. He locked his arms around her waist, almost as though they were about to start dancing, the way a pair of newlyweds might do. They were getting married in three weeks. With her siblings gone, those following weeks were just going to melt away. Not only did they have to see to the finishing touches for the wedding, but he was also starting school two weeks from now. It almost felt impossible that they had already arrived to this point in time, and yet…

"To the day," Maya nodded, her own arms around his neck. They might have started to sway just a bit. "Last time we danced like this, there was sort of…"

"Something between us?" he filled in. She chuckled.

"Well there isn't anymore, is there?" she asked, coming just a bit closer. It made him adjust his hold, too.

"Give him time, his timing is impeccable," Lucas looked up to the ceiling, listened. Maya did the same. After a few seconds of nothing, they looked back to each other. "Call that a blessing?" Two seconds later, they heard Elliott's cries and moved for the stairs.

"Call that comedic timing," Maya declared.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	50. These Are the Days

_**A/N: If you want to check it out, the title comes from a song of the same name by Van Morrison, which I listened to as I was writing this chapter!**_

* * *

_Chapter 50_  
_These Are the Days_

"Hey, alright, let's see who it's going to be today, yeah?" Lucas lifted Elliott from his crib, looking up to the tree and its many leaves. "Who is it?" he asked in a hush. At this point, the best he could do was look and decide that the first leaf he saw was The One, though he imagined there would come a point where Elliott was old enough to point his own finger, to make his own choice, even if he wouldn't be able to read yet. Today, the first name that Lucas saw was… "Grandma Katy, huh?" he smiled, sneaking a look to the bed. "You're not even trying to pretend anymore, are you?" he asked Maya. She gave an exaggerated display of 'sleep.' "Not buying it," Lucas declared, moving to where he might sit with her as she turned toward him.

"Oh, hey, good morning," she still played. He chuckled as he turned about, allowed her to look upon their son, too. Maya reached over, grasping the baby's foot. He made a small noise they just felt more and more was some recognition of who she was. "Good morning to you, too, thanks for finally going to sleep a few hours ago," she told him in a sweet whisper. The two of them had spent a good long while downstairs, in an effort to let Lucas get some sleep. He would have stayed up with the two of them, but she had insisted on him staying back. He needed to be well rested, as today would be his first day of school out here in Austin.

It felt like it had been a million years since they had finished out their second year of college back in Houston. Maya had been 'ridiculously pregnant,' as she would put it, and handling the summer heat to the best of her ability, and they were preparing to move out here, to their house, to settle in before the baby was born. This had all happened a bit sooner than they'd anticipated, but they'd gotten through it well enough, hadn't they? Now… Now he was about to start his third year, which would also be his first year, as he was new to this university. The prospect was just a bit nerve-wracking, but he held on to the fact that he wouldn't be going in solo. There was Ramona, he knew her, and he felt confident that he would find new friends.

Maya, meanwhile, would be back here with their boy, and part of Lucas felt like it wasn't fair that she would be forced to fall behind, even if the reason was entirely valid. The summer had felt like one event after another, keeping their lives in perpetual motion. Elliott was born, and they'd started on their way as parents. Then, Maya's siblings had come to stay with them, so they'd looked after them, too. Now, her siblings were settling into their new home, with their parents and their grandmother, and into their new lives. Camp had drawn to a close by now, but school wasn't far away for them either.

And the wedding was now six days away.

After Kermit and Abigail had come and taken charge of their four young roommates once more, the whole of the focus at the house on the lane – other than getting Elliott's nursery back as it had been, and looking after him, of course – was that big day, September 3rd… They had already agreed that, seeing as Lucas would be one week into his new semester by then, they would just have to put a pin into any honeymoon plans. But now, as they were counting down the days, they _had_ made plans. They were going to have that honeymoon over the Christmas break. They didn't know how they would fit Elliott into all this yet, but they would find a way. They would make it something real, memorable, not just a weekend off at a local hotel.

"I think you should take this story today," Lucas told Maya. "Unless you want me to tell him all about when Grandma Katy didn't want me in the house or something…"

"Come on, you have known my mother long enough to have something more than that, don't you?" Maya chuckled.

"Yeah, but I still think you'll have something better than I would," he pointed out, and she had to admit that was fair. Lucas turned Elliott around in his arms so that he'd be leaning against his chest, the two of them looking back at her. "Your audience awaits," he informed her.

This made her laugh, and _that_ made Elliott's face lift into a smile. The sight of it was nothing short of marvelous, where Maya was concerned, and looking down at the baby, Lucas echoed this feeling. Pressing a kiss to the top of their son's head, he looked back to Maya, and he knew her heart was just as full as his own. It felt like the culmination of everything from the day those tests had turned positive. To be sitting here, in their home, with their son, who was just… a wonderfully joyful, healthy, loved little fella, days away from being married, everything… everything that could make them aware of how lucky they had been, to get to be in this moment, in this feeling.

"Let me tell you about how your Grandma Katy and I came to Texas…" Maya reached over and grasped their son's little hands.

X

The days that followed would go by, it seemed, in the blink of an eye. One minute they had been sitting in bed with their son, talking about his grandmother, and the next it was Saturday night, also known as the night before the wedding.

Lucas had five days of class under his belt now. It was just as well that the first week of any semester was generally not the most busy, or else he might have had problems. There was just a bit of an awkwardness in the fact that the other students in his classes had clearly been in classes together for two years already, while he was brand new to the university and to their classes. He was so very glad for having Ramona there. The very first day, she had introduced him to her friends, Gabriela and Ariana.

They had welcomed him at once. On the first day, he had been told how Gabriela was from Florida, and Ariana from New York. They had both come to Texas for college two years ago. They had all met, the two of them and Ramona, on the very first day of class, after some guy on a bike had nearly run Gabriela over, and both Ramona and Ariana had been nearby and hurried to her to see that she was alright. Once they had realized they were headed to the same class, it was a done deal.

The moment they had heard about the fact that he was getting married in less than a week, they wanted to hear all about it, and then when they had heard about his having a baby, they wanted to see pictures right away. They reminded him very much of Ramona in that great warmth she had, though while her warmth felt like a crackling campfire, the other two were the warmth that came from a roaring blaze. It all depended on how you interacted with it, though Lucas soon came to the conclusion that anyone who was considered a friend of theirs was safe from being burned, and that was where he existed.

He would work extra hard to get any reading or small assignment he might receive completed between classes, or just before bed at night, so that, whenever he came home at the end of the day, he could help Maya with the last minute wedding preparations. There wasn't too much of it yet, of course, and all the classes he'd had, all the professors he'd been introduced to, left him to believe he would quickly get to like his new university, no matter how much a part of him would still miss his days back in Houston, with Bishop, with his uncle…

As soon as he would get home at the end of the day, he would put all thoughts of school aside and join Maya with the wedding things. This would generally be him and Maya and Pappy Joe, but also his mother and father, or his mother and Maya's mother and father, or his mother and Abigail and Elizabeth Hart, or his mother and Kermit, or his mother and a couple of their parent group… By Wednesday, Maya had joked that they might as well have his mother sleep at the house, if she was going to keep on showing up every morning shortly after he'd gone off to school.

Today had been his first day where he could be home from morning to night, the last big push before the big day. Well, maybe not until night… Just after dinner, Lucas had all but been carried off to go and spend the night back at his parents' house. It didn't matter that this marriage that was less than twenty-four hours had already been consummated, the proof presently gurgling in Maya's arms. He was not going to see his bride again until she came walking down the aisle.

"Can I at least say goodnight to my son?" he has protested just a bit, and so his parents had gone to wait for him in the car.

"What about me? Do I get a goodnight?" Maya smiled as she walked over to him and handed Elliott over. The baby had that look in his eyes like he was about to cry, like he knew his father was going away, or maybe that was just Lucas projecting over the realization that he had never spent a night away from home, from Maya and their boy. Elliott sometimes had a knack for not sleeping his night when his parents needed their sleep the most, didn't he?

"Hey, hey, we're all good," he kept Elliott close, did his thing until he could feel him calming down. "You going to write me later?" Lucas whispered to Maya, like the two of them were on some covert mission.

"You bet I will," she whispered back, and the look in her eyes told him that was more than a promise.

"Is it weird that I still can't believe that tomorrow…"

"Tomorrow," she repeated the word with a nod, like it was an incantation, a call to power. "I still remember the moment you asked me, and…"

She was interrupted by a call from Melinda Friar, standing outside, and the two soon-to-be spouses shared a private laugh. Rather than incur the wrath, they shared a brief kiss before Elliott was handed back over to his mother, and Lucas stepped out to join his parents. He turned back as he reached the car, signing 'I love you' and '366,' and Maya did the same, with a gentle swaying motion as she rejoined her arm to the hold over Elliott. It was only hours, and they would be sleeping through most of them anyway.

X

Maya woke up on the morning of September 3rd, and one after the other she came to two realizations. The first was that Elliott had slept peacefully through the night, though he was now awake and crying. She climbed out of bed and went to get him, carrying him back to the empty bed, where the second realization came… Today was her wedding day. The house was quiet now, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she was carried off to have breakfast and start getting ready, so she was going to enjoy this bit of quiet while she had it.

"You are going to look so good today, the people out there won't know what his them," she whispered, looking down to Elliott as he lay there, latched on to her and entirely unaware of what made this day different from any other day. "Now, your dad's not here this morning, but…" she reached her arm out to her phone and tapped through it until she found what she was looking for. "If you close your eyes, it's like he's here." With another tap, Lucas' voice was heard coming from the phone as the recording played.

_"Morning, sprout… and morning, Maya,"_ he added after a beat, which made her chuckle. _"Today, I'm going to tell you about one very important person on that tree. I'm going to tell you a story about your mom, and the day I met her for the very first time. Now, it might sound silly to some people, but I will stand by it. The day I met your mom, I fell in love with her…"_

Maya suspected that her mother had heard the recording and waited outside until it was over before coming into the room to get her to come down for breakfast. She had spent the night here, along with the twins. Pappy Joe had let Katy borrow his bed, while he spent the night at the Cassidy house. It was only natural to have her stay here, with her daughter, to see her through her wedding day, and being that she was rounding on seven months of this pregnancy, she deserved a bed over a couch. Said couch was occupied by the maid of honor, who was now downstairs with the flower girls as they were already having their breakfast.

"Look at us," Katy noted, sitting on the edge of the bed, a hand to her belly where her fifth and youngest was kicking away as she looked to her first and eldest, there with her own first born in her arms. Maya knew what she meant. It seemed not too long ago that it had been just the two of them against the world and now… Now their lives were so different, and different for the better.

_"I was fourteen, she was thirteen. I was sitting at school with your Uncle Zay, and then there was this girl, standing there, not too far ahead of us. See, we were waiting for this new girl that was coming to our school, and I was going to be her guide, to show her around and help her get familiar with the building, and the city, too, because she wasn't from Austin, not even Texas. She was from New York, which was so, so far away from Texas._

_"When she turned around, she saw us. She saw me, and I saw her. I didn't know who she was, didn't know her name, didn't know the sound of her voice, or her laugh, didn't know what a great smile she had, or how funny she was, how kind, and smart... and sneaky, very sneaky. Do you see it? Do you see that smile on her right now?"_

They were still halfway through breakfast when Melinda Friar came along, the rest of the bride's party not far behind. Maya had stolen a glance to Riley like 'don't let them take me away from this food,' and Riley was on it. She hadn't been named her maid of honor for nothing. Maya was left to nearly shovelling her breakfast down before Lucas' mother insisted she hopped in the shower so they could get her hair and makeup done afterward.

About as soon as she had the door open after coming from the shower, she was made to come and sit and it was off to the races. Her mother sat nearby, with Elliott in her arms, looking on with a smirk as she remained outside the frenzy. She trusted everyone around her would have her looking the way she wanted to look, but there was still a tiny part of her that was afraid she would look in the mirror and find that her hair stood inches above her head.

_"There's a drawing on our wall, a drawing of that first time we spoke to each other. Your mom made it, she's a very talented artist. I think if you look at it, she's really captured that moment between us. I can't say what was going through her head at the time, but I know what was going through mine. Here was this beautiful girl, and I know there are a lot of things that probably matter a lot more, but for that moment it was all I had. When I say that she was beautiful - that she _is_ beautiful, even now, especially now - it's not just because of how she looked, no. A face is just a face. What makes it beautiful is the person, who they are on the inside, and your mother..._

_"I didn't know a thing about her, except in a way it felt like I did. There was just something about her... I think, deep down, we were both at a point in our lives where we both needed someone so much. Maybe it would have been anyone, maybe someone we already knew, but it was me and her, and I don't know what would have happened if your grandma had not decided to move the two of them to Texas, but she did, and because of that we met, and we fell in love, and years later you came along."_

They wouldn't even let her look until after she was completely ready, dress and all. It was hanging there for her to see the whole time, and all the while she had been feeling the anticipation rising. It had fit perfectly, just as promised, when she had gone to pick it up, but even now she was starting to get paranoid, like what if something had gone wrong between then and now?

Everything was fine though. The dress had come on, and as Riley zipped her up she felt a bit of those nerves melt away.

"Shoes… the shoes," Melinda came forward and set them on the ground before her, sounding like everything she was already seeing was making it difficult for her to keep it together. Maya lifted up the skirt enough that she would see her feet and slipped them into the shoes.

"Can I look now?" she asked, taking a breath.

"Turn around," Nadine smiled, and so she did.

_"Now, I know that all feels like I left out a lot, but if I told you about the whole story, all the years, we would be here for a very long time, and your mother would be late for a very important thing that's about to happen today. That's okay though. That means I get to keep telling you that story over some more mornings, and your mother can keep pretending like she's not listening to every word instead of sleeping. I think she's smiling again, is she smiling again, Sprout?_

_"Anyway, what I will tell you for today is this day... It came earlier than any of us expected, but it's happening now because of two things. The first is that it was going to happen sooner or later, because I could not imagine spending my life with anyone else than your mother. That also means you, and any little brothers or sisters that might come along. The second reason why your mother and I are getting married today is you."_

Driving to their venue, it felt as though she really just couldn't wait much longer. She wanted to be there, wanted to walk down that aisle see Lucas there. At the risk of sounding weird, she couldn't wait to see him lose it at the sight of her. He absolutely would start to cry, and she knew… she would be right there with him.

"Where does Elliott go?" Nellie asked as she sat across from her big sister, with her twin across from their mother. She was very impressed by the car and how their seats were 'turned around.'

This had been a matter of some debate. They knew they wanted him close by, but it would have been sort of ridiculous to have him either in her arms on in Lucas' arms as they went ahead and said their vows. They had debated having him be with any of their parents, but eventually they had chosen to put Elliott in the care of his most honored godfather, who also served as best man that day. For that reason, he had been sent toward the venue with his paternal grandparents, as trying to fit his car seat into _this_ car would have been too much of a hassle anyway. It was another one of those things where being away from him was not how she would have wanted things to be, but Maya just surged on. They were nearly there.

_"When I say that it's because of you, that's not to say that we had no choice. We could have waited. It might have made Granny Mel or Pappy Tom a bit... unsure... but it wouldn't have been up to them, just us. We could have waited, but we didn't want to, I didn't want to. You, my little Elliott, you came to us as a surprise, but you were the best one we ever had. It's like I told you, I fell in love with your mom the day I met her, and right now I know she's probably looking at you with a nod, because she did the same thing. And in all those years, we ended up right where we are now because we loved each other, and we knew the future we wanted. We would get married someday, and we would have children, and we would spend the rest of our lives raising them and loving them together. You may have come ahead of time, but there was not a moment where you were not wanted._

_"The day we knew you were coming, it was like you were giving us permission to start on that future a little earlier than we'd planned."_

"Now I know you're used to being on stage, but how's it going, are you nervous? Do I need to tell you to picture everyone naked?"

"Dad," Maya scolded Shawn, who just smirked, as they stood together, waiting to go forward. "Also I'm fine, thanks," she let out a breath.

"You go ahead and you squeeze my arm if you have to," Kermit declared, standing opposite.

"I don't think you get just how much I am ready to go out there, Dad," she gave him a look before turning on a smile, which she shared with both the men standing on either side of her.

Even months ago, when Lucas had proposed, she could not have believed it if someone told her that she would make her way down the aisle not only with Shawn Hunter leading her forward – which had been a given – but also with Kermit Hart – who had been… much less than that. But now here they were, and there was no doubt in her mind that this was exactly the way she was meant to make her way down to meet her groom. When she had made the decision, she had gone to Shawn first, intending to explain why she would do this, why she had to. But then she had barely started talking when he'd cut her off. He already knew, and he was one hundred percent on board.

When she had asked Kermit if he would join Shawn in giving her away, he had been struck silent, and he had just pulled her into a hug. He'd held her for a while before pulling back and telling her he would be honored, with happy tears falling from his eyes. Even now as he stood with her, she could see how much it meant to him that he was here. He had come a long way from the young man who had walked away from his family. He was never going to do that to her again and they both knew it.

"Alright, this is it… All set?" Shawn asked, as they got their signal.

"I am telling you, I have been ready for a long time," Maya took one deep breath before the doors opened ahead of them.

_"Before I let you go, because your mom is going to need to go and get ready soon, and she really needs to hurry up and eat before my mother gets there and cuts her off... I'll just say one more thing. I know that you're not going to remember today, just like I know you won't remember any of what I'm telling you now. But one day, when you're older, you're going to know. Your mom or I will tell you about today, and even if you won't remember... You will have been there, with us, the day we made our own personal promise a very public one. At the end of the day, neither of us will be saying anything we don't already know. We love one another, and we vow to spend our lives together, and like I told you, Elliott... that's all we ever wanted, maybe not from day one, but somewhere along the way..."_

_TO BE CONTINUED_

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_See you next week! - mooners_


	51. Day One of Forever

_Chapter 51_  
_Day One of Forever_

"Easy, easy…" Maya laughed as she was lifted up into Lucas' arms and the layers of her skirt shifted like an expanding flower with her legs sticking out of it.

"I have never dropped you before, have I? What kind of thing would that be, for my first act as your husband to be to let you fall on the ground?" The smile on her face was brighter than all the sparkle on her dress. She was dead tired by now, but she felt so good that her exhaustion presented a lot like drunkenness, despite the fact that she had not had one drop of alcohol all night. And now he'd said husband and she was in a giggly mood all over again.

"It's not even our house, I could have walked," she reminded him, fishing in his jacket pocket until she found the key card and reached down to tap at the square over the handle before pushing it open.

"We have one night out here," he reminded back.

"Mini moon," she nodded.

"So, yeah, I am carrying you in," Lucas declared as he did so, closing the door behind them with his foot. When he set her down again, she turned right back into his arms so that she might kiss him the way she'd been meaning to kiss him all night.

"I guess that would be _my_ first act as your wife," she laughed, tapping at his chest before spinning off and finally kicking off her shoes. "Ow, _ow_…" she groaned in relief before getting a look down at her feet. Before the reception had even started she'd asked Riley to go and find her some bandages to apply where she knew those pretty pretty shoes were going to attempt to murder her feet for wanting to dance through the night.

"All good?" Lucas asked, slipping his jacket off and hanging it on a nearby chair.

"Oh, you know, it's all good and fine so long as the shoes stay on, but the second they come off you discover you've been in denial all night." She sat on the edge of the bed, lifting her feet off the ground and flexing her toes. "I don't want to take my dress off," she confessed with a mock pout. "It's too nice for me never to wear it again."

"You can wear it any day as far as I'm concerned," Lucas looked at her, sitting there in tired contentment. He had been seeing her in that dress for hours now, and still after all that time she continued to take his breath away. He didn't know what it was about seeing the woman you loved in a dress like this, but oh had he ever felt it, from the moment he'd first seen her come along, holding to both Shawn's arm and Kermit's.

She couldn't have worn her father's guitar pick today, as she instead wore a necklace lent to her by his mother as her something borrowed. When he'd arrived at his parents' house the night before – after having been forced away from his home, his then fiancée, and their son – he'd gone to hang his suit for the next day and found the chain in a box tucked in his front pocket.

_In case you miss me_ the note had said, with a small self-portrait of Maya with her tongue stuck out at him, because of course he'd miss her. Flipping the note over, he found another message. _PS, I miss you already, you better write!_

He'd done so, even as he propped up her note in the open box with the pendant, on his night stand. They had texted back and forth until he'd been forced to tell her good night and put the phone away by his pre-marital warden Melinda. He had no idea how long it took him to finally fall asleep, but he could guess he'd tossed and turned and looked at the box and the note about two dozen times. If it wasn't enough that he was getting married in less than a day, which was enough to make anyone have trouble sleeping, he was also away from both Maya _and_ their baby boy. Sure, he'd left his recorded story for Elliott, but it still wasn't the same as to be there, holding him, watching for Maya's attempts at looking as though she slept…

Finally he must have fallen asleep though, because morning had arrived, and with it a tornado of activity, which eventually brought him to the church. This had in turn reunited him with his son, as best man and godfather Zay had gone and retrieved the boy from Shawn and brought him over. Lucas was just so happy to see him again that it took a couple seconds for him to even notice the clothes on his dapper babe. If that wasn't enough, to see the look on Elliott's face as he was handed over into his father's arms… It was worth a night away… two nights away, including this one, which the baby was spending in his Uncle Zay and Aunt Nadine's room, one hotel floor down. They'd volunteered.

Once Elliott had been brought along, it hadn't been long before everyone else came into place, and with the rise of music, she'd come along.

He'd recorded the story of the first time ever he'd seen Maya back in middle school, for Elliott, and now, when he saw her coming, it was that same feeling, bloomed and bloomed with years, and living, and loving, and a small blue-eyed boy. It was all that had been and what was yet to come, and he couldn't wait for it to begin.

As they'd stood there, looking to one another, not a dry eye to either of them, he could just see Maya looking past him from time to time, to Elliott over in Zay's arms, and seeing this he would find his own curiosities be put to rest. When the moment had come for them to say their vows, it was only him, and her, and the words, the promise they made, as though it wasn't already their intent and their goal. And all of a sudden, there it was… They were husband and wife. There was little need of prompt for Lucas to kiss his bride. If it wasn't for their having already gone through the birth of their first child, they would have said it was the most surreal moment of their young lives thus far.

"Is it bad that I'm hungry right now? Like I could really go for… I don't know…" Maya trailed off, trying to figure out what she yearned for. In response, Lucas held up a finger with a knowing smile and went over to the small refrigerator next to the mini bar, where he had stashed a few things after checking them in earlier. When Maya saw the boxes, she gasped and sat up straighter. "When… How…"

"I know you want to wear your dress as long as you can, but maybe it'd be safer if you…" She was way ahead of him, already moving to stand.

"I'm going to regret this," she winced before setting her feet on the ground and rising. "Unzip me?"

"You know, I can lift you right out of there," he joked as he went and helped her.

"See, you're kidding, but my feet are a nightmare right now, so don't think I won't take you up on that," Maya declared before carefully stepping out of her dress, which was then just as carefully hung up and covered.

With a hotel robe slipped on and tied off, the bed felt like even more of a draw for sleep, and it might have been, if not for the presence of the food and the tiniest bit of a spectacle, as she munched and watched Lucas finish with his own change of clothes. At the same time, in this moment of the two of them just joking around with one another, her thoughts drifted.

"I should call to see how they're doing down there with Elliott," she looked around for where she'd left her phone.

"We left their room not even ten minutes ago," Lucas reminded. "He's fine."

"He's never spent the night with neither one of us nearby if he cries…" Maya shook her head. All of a sudden, the thought of their boy and how they had completely stopped thinking about him for a while there… "I know, I know, I shouldn't feel guilty about us having a night off, especially this night, but I kind of do."

"Honestly, I do, too," Lucas admitted, plopping down on the bed with her. Maya offered him the box she'd opened and he took one of the cookies. "Ever since he came along, it's like I've always got the one ear tuned to him."

"Radio ELF," Maya smiled.

"All those little noises he makes, it's just there, when we're getting to sleep. Last night, in my old room by myself, oh… I missed that sound. I would have done anything for him to start and cry so I'd have a reason to go over and pick him up. Instead I had to lie there, and I couldn't fall asleep, not with him there in his crib and you in my arms."

"One of those things will be fixed," Maya smiled.

"And I know he's going to be okay down there, that he is safe with them and he knows them well, but at the same time it still feels like he would be so much better here with us. That is how we're supposed to feel, isn't it? We love him so much that it feels wrong to be away from him. That's me, every day when I go to work, to school. I think we have earned ourselves one night of selfishness."

"So… so many jokes running through my head right now," Maya chuckled.

"Yeah?" he laughed back. Maya nodded. "Please, tell me every last one."

"Alright, set me up," Maya requested, resettling and taking up another cookie. Lucas sat up, getting into the 'scene.' She snickered. "What's that face, what's that?" she waved her hand at him and he dodged, laughing along.

"It's my… acting face." This only made her laugh harder.

"Don't quit your day job," she shook her head, leaned in to kiss him. He responded in kind, pulling her nearer into his arms. She was the same person she had been last night when he'd looked back at her standing on that porch, the same person he'd watched come up the aisle on the arms of her fathers, the mother of his son, and still… Still, now she was his wife… He had a wife… and to hold her this way, kissing her and feeling as though every inch of his body begged to never let her go… "How about it? Think we can be a bit selfish tonight?" he breathed, reuniting their lips once and again, and again, like the links in a chain.

"You know what, I really think you're starting to convince me," Maya spoke softly, as devoted to this chain of theirs as he was. "I just need to deal with…" she reached to undo her hair, shaking it loose with open contentment. "… this," she breathed. "And these," she removed her necklace, and her earrings, each item dutifully received along with the hair things by – she could not get tired of thinking it – her husband, who set them safely on the night stand, with the boxes of cookies. "Bracelet…" she went on, handing it over. "Not these," Maya smiled, looking to the rings on her finger, the one he'd presented her with, the day he'd proposed, and the one he'd joined to it just hours ago, upon his vows. "I know I'll have to take them off from time to time, but right now the words 'off my cold, dead hand' come to mind."

"Not the image I'd like to think about," Lucas smiled nonetheless.

"Yes, well, the feeling goes both ways," she took up his hand, inspecting the ring on _his _finger. "This conversation just took a serious swerve on to Unpleasant Thoughts Street, let's just cruise right back to where we were, yeah?"

"And where was that?" he inquired, leaning up to her once more, giving a couple casual tugs at her robe's sash.

"Let's call it… Marital Selfishness Road," her eyes sparked, and they were on their way.

Sleep was not hard to come by when all was said and done. The day had been long and eventful, starting with an early wake up call, and the frenzy of preparation, only to be followed by the wedding and the reception, the many dances with family, and friends, and each other, and finally brought to an end with one last surge of activity… They could have slept well into the morning, lost in a cloud of body warmth and hotel sheets.

For all that, Maya woke with the sunrise, orange light bathing the room in a glow. The room was so silent, save for the steady breath at her side. The whole of the previous day could have felt like the most vivid dream, but no… It had truly happened, she had married the man she loved, and now they were here, in this beautiful hotel room, paid for by their parents so they might have at least this short beat away from home until their 'real' honeymoon in a few months' time. It wasn't as though it wouldn't have felt real if they'd gone back to their house, but she was really happy that they got to wake up in this place this morning. It all just felt like a dream, right down to the light catching on the diamonds on her finger.

"I had a really nice dream…" Lucas mumbled at her back, and Maya smiled, turning around in his arms so she might see his face. "No, wait, not a dream," he 'corrected,' which only made her laugh as they both moved in for a kiss which soon expanded into a whole lot more. They might as well enjoy their time within the mini moon bubble for as long as they could, right?

"Reasonably, how long can we stay here, just you and me in this bed?" Maya hummed, her ear pressed over Lucas' heart sometime later. One arm wrapped around her as his hand lay over hers, Lucas knew exactly what feeling was inhabiting her now, conjuring up this question.

"Well, everyone else is home, and Zay and Nadine did offer to keep Elliott until lunch time…" Lucas reminded her. When Maya gave a low whimper, he looked down at her.

"See, now, you said his name and it got me all… mom-y," she gestured to herself.

"Hate to admit it, but yeah… I'm right there, too." She pulled herself up just a bit, enough as to bring herself nose to nose with him, and there was no mistaking what was on her mind now. "One more selfish act for the road?" he asked, making her grin.

"We did just get married," she pointed out as he kissed her.

There was absolutely no chance of their showing up at Zay and Nadine's room to find that they had slept in, not with an infant to look after. It wasn't so much that they happily relinquished the temporary responsibility, but one look at them suggested that Elliott had had one of his more operatic nights and kept them both incapable of sleep. Now that the boy's parents would take him back, they would be free to collapse on to the fine hotel mattress and pass out until checkout.

As sorry as they were that their friends had had such a bad night of it, it was hard to receive their son and feel anything but absolute gladness and joy. They had missed him so very much, and the way he clung to his mother, there was no denying that the feeling was mutual.

"We missed you a whole lot, too, yes, we did," Maya whispered, rocking the baby in her arms as they walked back toward the elevator. Lucas walked in step with her, staying well within Elliott's line of sight. As much as they had earned their night to themselves, they had no regrets whatsoever over the relief they felt, now that they had their boy back. By tonight, they would be back home, and then their lives would carry on, changed but also the same, also exactly what they had built together. They were ready for anything and everything that would come next.

"So, what are we going to do about the real honeymoon?" Lucas wondered as they sat up in their hotel bed again, now with Elliott back where he belonged. "I don't see us leaving him behind for however long we'll be gone."

"I'm sure we can convince someone to tag along and watch him? Maybe?"

"If we do, then we really need to decide before any of our parents get any ideas," he told her, which made her laugh. Resting in his father's arms, Elliott Friar smiled at the sight of his mother's happy face.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	52. Driving Young Mr Friar

_Chapter 52_  
_Driving Young Mr Friar_

"Hey…" Lucas quietly spoke as he woke up to find Maya sitting up in bed next to him, the baby in her arms as he fed. "Did I oversleep?" he asked, rubbing at his face as he turned to look at the clock.

"Little bit," Maya confirmed. "It's fine, you're not late."

"I kind of am," he nodded to Elliott, already with her instead of back in his crib for Lucas to go to and tell him his daily story.

"I don't see him being so set in his ways that he'll mind the order being changed around," Maya pointed out, looking back to their son, already three and a half months old. "Go on and get ready, I'll pass him over to you as soon as he's not kind of attached to me," she turned a smirk to her husband.

"Alright," Lucas relented, leaning to kiss the side of her face before heading out to take a quick shower. It had been one thing when he had been working his two jobs, at the bookstore and the pet store, but now he had been in school for nearly a month on top of everything, which left him with little time to spare. What he had left, he gave to his wife and son, but still he would get to bed at night and be out like a light. The last few mornings he'd pulled himself out of bed to go and tell his stories, abandoning the extra sleep he clearly needed. So, this morning, Maya had turned off his alarm, entrusting herself with the duty to wake him if he got too close without waking on his own.

When he came back and finished getting dressed, Elliott was ready for him and he went into his daddy's arms with a smile and energized hands reaching for him. Maya left them to the tree on the wall and the rocking chair, heading down to start on breakfast only to find Pappy Joe had already seen to it.

"Feel like a walk this morning?" he asked, sliding an omelet into its waiting plate.

"Sure, yeah, not too far though," Maya smiled. "Got a lot of places to go today."

Lucas and Elliott came down soon after, and after settling the baby in, Lucas sat to breakfast with Maya and Pappy Joe. Spotting the sketchbook at her side, he asked what she was sketching. Maya had an air of mystery about her, but finally she opened up the book to the page held by her pencil and he saw what appeared to be their son in a number of disguises, anything from a pumpkin to a plant, a bee, a dragon…

"Halloween?" he guessed.

"I know he won't remember it, but it's his first one, and well… Halloween was definitely big in his story," Maya told him, stealing a glance to Elliott, who was presently enthralled by Pappy Joe's finger, grasped in his small hand.

"A year ago, he wasn't even a blip on the horizon," Lucas recalled, like it didn't seem possible, not when their whole lives had been so altered from the moment… well, from that Halloween the year before.

After Lucas had left for school, Elliott was placed in the sling strapped to his mother, along for the ride as Maya and Pappy Joe left the house with Trix and Lou for a stroll along the lane. It was a near daily activity for the three of them, and Maya couldn't say for sure who enjoyed it the most between herself, her son, or her 'Pappy in law' as she would teasingly call him. As little as he was, Elliott just seemed to liven up to another level whenever they were outside, leisurely walking along. Maya would be certain that it would put him to sleep, but no… he was wide awake here, and he would remain that way until they went back to the house, where he would be down for a solid nap.

For her part, she loved spending this time with Pappy Joe. Much as Lucas' mother and father had long ago started to look at her like she was one of their own, even before she'd started to date their son, Pappy Joe had become as good as her grandfather, by his own design, practically from day one. She'd never had a grandfather of her own growing up, though both men were alive and well in their own corners and far from her. And then here was Joseph Friar, who had shown her what she had been missing, without question. Now that he was living with them, lending such a valued hand in looking after Elliott, she couldn't imagine him being anywhere but right here, walking by her side and regaling her with her own stories, inspired not by a tree painted on a wall but by the wealth of his years.

What _he_ got out of these walks, well… he didn't lay it out for her in words, so she could only piece it together from listening to him, looking at him… He had been pulled from this house when he'd had his accident, but as he'd gone through his recovery and found himself unable to return to live out here, Maya remembered seeing him and sensing just… loss, and realization… He'd been living out here on his own ever since his Susannah had passed on, and whether he'd been ready to admit it to himself or not, a part of him had been weighed down by the ghost of her, when he'd already been weighed down by the ghost of the girl they had lost. The house had so little life left to it, and he had gifted it to his grandson when he'd graduated high school, maybe, in the hopes that he would bring the place back to what it had once been. Now… Now, he'd done that, in ways none of them could have expected a year ago, and to make it better, Pappy Joe got to be right at the heart of this rebirth, got to see the life breathed back into it and into him, too.

As expected, Elliott had gone and dozed off shortly after their return to the house. Instead of carrying him up to his crib, Maya had quickly checked his diaper before getting him into his car seat and taking off for the mall. This was to be the first of many stops throughout the day, and he would be right along with her from one end to the other.

He woke up as she got him from the car and into the stroller, veering only momentarily into distress mode before Maya got him back at ease and on their way into the mall. Soon enough she came to find the waiting duo of Billie Lawson and her two-month-old daughter Stormy.

"Hey, been here long already?" Maya asked, sitting at Billie's side with a quick embrace before looking in on the small redhead snoozing in her own stroller.

"Only by design," Billie assured her, getting her own look in at Elliott, presently attempting to snatch the stars on the underside of the stroller's shade. "Hey there, fella," Billie touched his foot before turning back to Maya. "I texted Ainsley, she'll meet us when she gets her break," she shared as they got up and the four of them started further into the mall. "Where should we start?"

"Well, Ainsley already said that she's still got a lot of the basics from when Cameron was born, and Brianna will be able to use those, so that narrows things down, yeah?"

It wouldn't be long now that the girl would be giving birth, and much as she was settling in with admirable resilience after moving out of her parents' home and into Ainsley's. She was officially emancipated, and now all her focus had gone toward ensuring that she would do everything right for her unborn child. But now the child was very close to moving from un to born, and her friends and fellow new parents had no intention of seeing her go into this new stage feeling overwhelmed by any needs she and the baby would have. Jay would be there, too, and potentially the other 'paternal contender,' but there was so much that they wouldn't think to provide the way their group would, with Elliott, Stormy, Simone, and Cameron between the lot of them.

Ainsley met them a half hour later, on break from her post at the jewelry counter across the mall. She looked like she'd made a mad dash from her store to ensure she'd be with them for as much of her available time as possible. Maya and Billie had figured this would be the case, and they had a smoothie ready and waiting for her when she got to them.

After Ainsley's break had come to an end, forcing her to dash back across the mall to her store, Maya and Billie had continued their double-stroller stroll for a little while longer before they both had to go their separate ways. Billie had to take Stormy in to a check-up, while Maya was expected for lunch at her parents' house. Back to the car she went, putting Elliott into the back for another ride. He needed to be fed soon, which would mean that no amount of car motion would keep him at peace. It was a good thing then that Maya had a second option. She had her voice. Even as they took off from the mall, before he could even start to fuss, she started to sing, letting her voice be like a hand that held his, all the way to the house.

Having expected to arrive and find only her mother, father, and little brother, Maya was surprised to find a couple of blue-eyed brunettes waiting in the window as she drove up.

"Hey, hey," she smiled as she walked in with Elliott in his car seat and the twins came up like a pair of eager pups to look in on him. "Aren't you supposed to be in daycare right now?"

"There's water," Nellie informed her very matter-of-factly.

"Water?" Maya repeated, unsure of what that was supposed to mean.

"Pipe burst," Shawn answered for them. Maya looked up. "So they're closed for a few days. That's alright though, right? More time for me," he looked to his younger daughters, who both gave deep nods. They liked being at home with their dad, too.

On the other hand, much as all this was true, and they wanted the two four-year-olds to believe as much, it would be just as true to say that it would have been easier for them to be at daycare still. Katy's pregnancy had seen a lot of ups and downs, after its start, which had been nothing short of deep, deep down, with a near miscarriage. Things had improved in time, and for a while everything had been fairly normal, as normal as they could be, heading into this fourth round. But now with seven months gone, it had been her doctor's recommendation that she slow down considerably. It had been hard for all of them to hear this without sliding down into the assumption that they should start to worry, but they had been reassured, as best as anyone could be, and for now… all they could do was wait, keep going, day by day.

By now, Shawn did not leave Katy alone at home if he could help it. Cory and Topanga had been indispensable since then, pitching in either by picking things up for them, or staying with Katy when Shawn had to go, looking after the kids sometimes… Maya and Lucas did their own part, too, but then Katy and Shawn didn't want to impose so much, what with them having their own baby boy to look after, in the midst of everything else in their lives. Of course, now, the story had gotten that much more complicated when it had been revealed that the Matthews family would be growing, too, with Cory and Topanga expecting a third and very unplanned child to be born the following April. The big takeaway had somehow become that the old friends would get to be new fathers more or less at the same time, and the way Shawn and Cory had been going at it, they were practically plotting to turn the pair of them into instant best friends to carry on the line.

After having seen to Elliott's needs and checking in on her mother to find that she was napping, Maya had offered to take the twins and MJ out to the park if Shawn looked after the baby.

"Are you kidding? Trading three running ones for one little one? Done," her father had declared, collecting his grandson with gladness. This had earned him a stare from Gracie, the only one of the little kids who seemed to grasp what he was saying. "Only for a little while," he whispered to her. The two of them had grown more and more bonded as Gracie grew up, it seemed, until she could be said to be his favorite, though he would never put it that way. Really, it was just that of his four children, he had gotten three extroverts, and one Gracie.

So, off they went, Maya pushing her littlest brother – for now – in his stroller, while the twins stood to her side, Gracie holding Nellie's hand. She had started to take Elliott out to the park. He was still too small for games and all that, but with how he responded to their walks with Pappy Joe, she had predicted, and rightly so, that he would enjoy himself here, even if it was just about sitting on a bench, or walking around. Sometimes they would stop over at the diner to visit Asher and Joey's uncle.

On the plus side, after being out there more and more, she had gotten to know some of the other regulars, which sometimes also included her own friends. Today, she ran into Aaron with little Simone, and so they alternated looking after the baby girl, and MJ and the twins as the three of them played along. Maya took the opportunity to tell him about the shopping she had done with Billie and Ainsley for Brianna, and he had paid his and Marius' part.

The father and daughter had followed them back to the Hunter-Hart house when it came time for her to drop off her siblings, pick up her son, and carry on with her day. She dropped them off at home before continuing on with Elliott for a bit of grocery shopping, or as she'd taken to call it, parenting in the wild.

After spending much of the time following Elliott's birth just recovering from the delivery, and breaking in her brand new maternal responsibility, she'd gotten to the point where she'd felt at ease taking him around with her. Sometimes they'd just go out to be out, instead of simply being inside the house, or they would go and visit one person or another, or they would go and run an errand or two. It hadn't taken long for Maya to discover how having Elliott, having this small child who depended on her for just about everything, had gone and changed her. There was no way it wouldn't have, no way she could go from being the Maya she had been before that Halloween day when she'd learned she was pregnant, to the Maya she was now, as a mother. Even so, there was no knowing the nature of the change until she went through it.

Back when she'd been in New York, growing up, she had been another person, too. She'd been a girl with a shell, a mask, and no one was ever going to notice, not if she had any say about it. Then he'd moved here, and after being removed from everything she'd known, it was like her shell and her mask had been broken, shattered to pieces, and while she'd been scrambling to pick them all up, build it back together, she'd started to grow, to change. She'd had Lucas, she'd had her new friends, and after that, she just didn't need the cover anymore. It was the purest way of living she'd experienced in a long time.

Sometimes, being out and about, she felt the way she'd done, right after she'd moved here… exposed. It wasn't all the time, and it was fleeting, but then there were people, and she swore something about the grocery store made it that much more of a thing. There were types. There were the nice ones who would just sort of look in at him in his seat, and smile, and move on. There were the nice ones who'd stop her and start to talk with her. More often than not, they left her feeling sort of like… they thought they had good intentions, but they left her with the impression that when they said her son was cute, what they were really thinking was 'oh she's so young, can she even take care of him?' She was twenty-one, sure, it would be considered a bit early, but it didn't mean she couldn't be a good mother.

The thing was, well, she was short, and that along with the rest of her… they probably thought she was even younger, seventeen, sixteen… That was probably what was going through the minds of those who didn't give her smiles, more like looks of disapproval, or pity… Some days it would take everything she had in her not to summon New York Maya from the depths and give them a piece of her mind. Austin Maya knew better than to prove them right in any way. She ignored them, she moved on.

They headed home to drop off the groceries. Driving up the lane, Maya spotted Pappy Joe standing with Missy's grandfather up at the farm, chatting along. She honked her horn and waved at them as she went. They waved back, and she drove on. At the house, she settled Elliott inside before quickly bringing up the bags to put everything away. Once that was done, she let out a breath, looked at her watch. She had a couple more stops to make, but after being out and about all morning, she really needed to eat, and stop a while.

Sitting next to Elliott's car seat, looking in on him as he slept peacefully, eating from her bowl of leftovers from the previous night's dinner, Maya breathed out, looked around… Everything was good. The house had been nothing short of a small miracle for them, and it was going to be a place for her son to grow up… so much more than what she'd had. Not that the size of her childhood home and his made any difference whatsoever about who they'd become or whether or not they'd be happy… not entirely. But then she'd think about the future, and she couldn't help wondering, couldn't help… worrying… a little. Things had been pretty good in the beginning, for all she remembered, and then not so much, so…

Oh, she wasn't worried about Lucas, no. He was solid, he came from solid, but her… she came from cracked, and broken, and patched together by shaky hands, she… she came from runners. She hated to think about it that way, but she did, didn't she? Her mother had run off from home, chasing a dream, only to end up with a baby when she was eighteen. And her father… well, he'd run, too, when she was six, and she knew… Oh, she didn't blame him, not anymore, or… She'd forgiven him, something she'd never believed could ever happen, not for a long time. Between the two of them, what if…

She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of Elliott's crying.

"Oh, hey, Sprout, hey, it's alright…" she stood up at once, setting her bowl aside and pulling him from his seat. She held him close, rocking him gently. "I'm right here, see? Mommy's here…" she hummed, breathing deep. "I'm not going anywhere," she promised, kissing his forehead. "Not ever, do you hear me? I'm going to outrank your Granny Mel with how much I'll be there. You'll get tired of me, but deal with it." Her heart was drumming wildly, it seemed, like she'd let the floor drop from under her and she'd been falling, falling… But now she'd found the ground again, and she had her precious boy in her arms, and all was well.

When Pappy Joe returned from the Sanderson farm, she told him she was headed to his son's house and asked if he wanted to come along, and soon the three of them were on their way. If Maya had anything left on her face that looked like she'd been spooked, he didn't say a word.

"Oh, here he is…" Tom Friar was there to greet his father, his daughter-in-law, and his grandson. Maya and Lucas would sometimes tease him and suggest that he would attempt to hurry and be first at the door, the better to get some time in with Elliott, because as soon as Melinda got her hands on her Junebug, it would all be over. "Who's happy to see Pappy Tom?" he asked, suddenly transformed into a gooey semblance of a man, with a smile powered by the small boy now nestled in his arms and looking up at him like 'hey, I know you, I like you.'

"Should I run interference?" Maya smirked at him.

"Don't be so sure I won't say yes," Tom laughed, turning a funny face toward the baby, who batted his arms in what Maya would call the 'no, sir, it appears it is _I_ who has your nose' maneuver. It wasn't anything too specific, but she so very much enjoyed personifying her son's little baby habits.

As expected, the moment Melinda Friar came along and spotted Elliott, she had 'gimme' face. She wouldn't go and just snatch the boy out of her husband's arms, but the way she would stand there and look at him, you almost had no choice but to hand him over, and finally Tom did as much. Following the group into the living room, Lucas' father asked about their day, and Maya told him about it… maybe leaving out that little bit back home before coming here. He asked how Lucas was doing, too, and here Maya felt some conflict.

They were his parents, they would want to know how hard it all was for him these days, wouldn't they? Now more than ever, she knew that, if something was ever not okay with Elliott, she would want to be told, as his mother, one of his parents. But she was also Lucas' wife now, and even when she'd been his fiancée, his girlfriend, his best friend, her position would be to know the line. Lucas had a right to his own issues, to have a chance to work them out himself, and if he hadn't told his parents, then it was up to him to decide when he wanted to. If it got to a point where she felt she kind of had to reach out, it would be another story, but for now… For now he was just a new father, working two jobs, going to school, who needed more sleep. It was not so much a problem as it was a reality of their lives now and for the foreseeable future, until Elliott was a bit older than he was now.

Much as she would have loved to stay longer with the Friars… much as Granny and Pappy would have wanted her and Elliott to stay longer… her grandparental tour was not over. She had one more stop to make. She wasn't exactly ticking them off a list, 'getting it over with,' but she had gotten into this bit of a routine of taking Elliott to all three places on the same day, at least twice a week, because it was an easy way to make time for them and also make time to just enjoy this time in her boy's life, when he was here, and he was small, and happy, and just carefree, before the world and life had any chance of getting in the way.

"How would you like to hear some music?" Kermit asked Elliott as he received him from his daughter's arms. Looking at him, with his grandson staring back in wonder, Maya would recall the young man in those videos, from when she had been as small as Elliott was now. That was still in him, twenty-one years later, and to Maya it felt like a second chance… probably felt that way to her father, too… a second chance to get it right this time, with his grandson if not his daughter.

In the time since they'd moved in, Kermit, Abigail, the kids, and Elizabeth, the house had really come together wonderfully. It really had been the perfect choice for them. They went into the den, where Kermit handed the baby back before picking up his guitar.

"I've been trying to remember, there was this song I would play for you when you were… maybe a year old. I always meant to record it somehow, but I didn't, and now I just… I'm having trouble getting it back," he explained.

"You don't remember who the artist was?" Maya asked, trying to think back, as though it would come to her, from way back when.

"Me, I wrote it," Kermit explained. She blinked.

"I had no idea you ever wrote songs…"

"Oh, I didn't, there was just the one, and even then I never came up with the words, I would just… I would sit next to your crib, with my guitar, and I would just start to play. After a while, there was just this melody that started coming together, you know how that goes."

"Yeah, I know," she smiled.

"Yes, well, so, you would look at me, with those big blue eyes of yours, like 'hey, that's not bad, man,' so I kept playing, and it grew like that. I really wish I could remember, for you and… for him," he gestured toward Elliott, who was busy tugging at the end of his mother's braid. He grew distracted, adjusting his guitar. There was a tremor in his hands, barely noticeable. When her father noticed her noticing, he cleared his throat, adjusting his sitting position. "Let me see if this helps me get back into it."

Driving back home after leaving her father's house, Maya was almost glad to find Elliott was asleep in the back. She didn't know that she would have had it in her to sing to calm him at this point. All of a sudden, it was like they'd all been playing along, going with the day to day, all so that they might not think about the elephant in the room. Kermit, he was okay again, wasn't he? All those bad days, the old illness, that was in the past now, yeah?

Pappy Joe had been taken back home by his son, and now he was in the kitchen, doing his bit to get dinner started. Meanwhile, Lucas was back, too, lying on the couch, sleeping. Maya went up and set Elliott back in his crib before coming back down the stairs and sitting on the edge of the couch. After a few moments of her just watching him sleep, Lucas started to stir, and finally to open his eyes.

"Hi," she smiled.

"Hey," he smiled back. She leaned forward to kiss him, sitting back up again to look at him.

"How was your day?"

"Good," Lucas nodded, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes with a yawn. "Some classes were better than others. I'm just happy to be home again, with you, and…" he looked around.

"Elliott's upstairs," Maya told him. "We had a busy day, saw all the grandparents, mostly just spreading joy wherever we went," she intoned with a smile, which made him laugh.

"I can see that. I'll go check in on him," he moved to stand. Maya stalled him.

"Do you have a lot of work to do tonight?"

"One reading, shouldn't be too bad," Lucas replied.

"Okay," she nodded. "Good." Lucas looked at her for a moment, finally piecing together what she was getting at.

"It's fine, as soon as I'm done I am going to bed," he promised. Maya breathed out, nodded. "Hey," he leaned his forehead to hers. "I know you worry about me, I get it, I'm glad… Not about you being worried, I just…"

"No, I know," she smiled. He cupped the side of her face, kissing her softly.

"I've got really good motivation at the end of the day," he pointed out.

"I do what I can," she joked, which made him laugh.

"You succeed, through and through."

"It's been… a weird, long, day," she finally admitted.

"Yeah?" he asked, holding her gaze with that open look of love he had, whenever it was just the two of them, looking at one another. "Tell me about it."

"I… I'm worried about my father… Kermit," she clarified. She told him about when they'd been at his house, him telling her about the old song. They hadn't gotten it all exactly, but he had done one small bit she'd felt as though she'd definitely heard before, nothing she'd know from somewhere else. He wanted to keep working on it, and she wouldn't have thought much more of it except for that tremor. Combined with the search for the song, it had sent her on this path, wondering if he was back to believing his days to be numbered.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	53. The Branch We Did Mend

_Chapter 53_  
_The Branch We Did Mend_

It had taken two weeks, but Kermit had finally remembered the melody he had composed, twenty years and some dust ago, for his then baby daughter, his first born, his Maya.

This work had not been accomplished with ease. For days still after he'd told her about it for the first time, all he could seem to get were crumbs, hardly anything he could manage to piece together enough that the song could be yanked from the bottom of his cluttered brain.

"It's no use," he'd told her, one afternoon when she'd brought Elliott over for another visit. "Maybe I'm not meant to get it back, maybe I just… I lost the right to get it back, when I walked out on you and your mom."

"You can't believe that," she'd tried to convince him, but it was no use. He would carry his guilt forever, and it wasn't something he could or, as far as he was concerned, should be rescued from. He had done this to himself, none worse than what he'd done to her and Katy.

Katy… her mother… She would have heard it, wouldn't she? Somehow, it hadn't been captured on any one of the videos Kermit had on that thumb drive he'd given Maya, but that didn't mean no one else would remember it. Maya got a pass because she'd been too little, but her mother… and Luna, his sister… She might have an idea of it…

"Hey, Mom?" Maya had asked her mother, when she'd gone to visit her the next day. "When I was a baby, do you remember Dad playing this song for me on his guitar? He said he made it up, no words, just…" Her mother had looked at her, and after a moment she'd just started to laugh to herself. "What?"

"That's just… That's what I've been humming, for him," Katy looked down to herself, running a hand over her belly. "It's just been stuck in the back of my mind, and here I was trying to remember the words, I was so sure it was something I heard on the radio. I've been driving Shawn crazy for weeks trying to figure out what it was. All I know is it keeps this one calm, whenever I do it, just…" she hummed the tune, and Maya remembered her doing this, just as she'd said, in the past weeks. "No wonder we couldn't find what it was. I guess I just… I must have remembered, from when Kermit would play for you, and how it would calm you right down."

With this information, Maya had gone back home. Picking up her own guitar, she'd held to the memory of her mother's humming, called on those small crumbs given by her father, and she'd recorded the results. She'd sent this to Kermit, and he'd called her back just minutes later, ecstatic. That was it, near enough to it! When she'd told him how she'd found it again, he'd laughed.

"After all this time, I guess I wasn't sure how to ask her."

He had gone back after this, and he'd done his own version, found those last missing pieces and put it all together. When he'd sent it back, Maya had listened to it, with Elliott in her arms. Her boy, coming on four months old now, had been the picture of peace, and she… She couldn't genuinely say that she remembered her father playing this for her, but she knew that he had, and it was something.

"You could find the words," Kermit had told her. "I never could, but maybe that's why, maybe you're the one who's supposed to have them."

All this time, Maya couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on with him that he wasn't telling her about. She didn't know what it was, though clearly it had something to do with his health, with the thing that had plagued him so, enough that he'd reached out to her and enabled this shift in their dynamics so strong that he had moved his entire family from New York to Texas in great part so that they could all be together again. His thrive to retrieve and pass on this lullaby of his all of a sudden, the dedication he'd given to get it back, had an all too distinct feeling like he was trying to get it back while he still had the chance.

As much as she was plagued with this thought, and she continued to be, she didn't have it in her to ask him point blank, him or any of the others who might know, like her stepmother, or Sam, or her grandmother… For all she knew, they weren't aware of it, and she would be blowing Kermit's secret. Or maybe they did know, and for some reason or another they weren't telling her. Or… or, maybe this was all in her head, a conjured up worry, but… no, she wasn't making this up, that much, unfortunately, she was sure of.

All this time, the only one she'd confided her worries to was Lucas. Her husband did not once push her to talk to her father, to just get out with it and ask him. He knew why she couldn't make herself do it, and he wasn't about to make her do something she didn't feel ready to do. What he _had_ done was that he'd been there for her, to listen to her concerns, to support her… She hoped he knew how much it meant to her to have him there in that capacity.

Already he was continuing on his exhaustive rotation of home, school, and work. He had gotten better at managing everything, found ways to make the most of his time, and at no time did she find him looking as though he hated what he was doing, what he had to do… He was happy with his two jobs, which was really just essential, wasn't it? It would have been a whole other matter if he had not found work that motivated him in one way or another.

He had the bookstore, where he got to carry on with his love of sharing books with others, more and more with the kids, now that he found himself scoping out new things for Elliott from time to time. Their son easily had material now to see him through many a stage of his growing reading abilities… which he did not have yet in the slightest, of course. For now at least, he was being read to, daily, and that was the start of something.

Then there was the pet shop, where to some very minimal but in no way insignificant degree he was working toward his future goals, to be a veterinarian, to look after animals. They were the kind who sold food, and toys, and any other supplies for the animals, not the animals themselves, and for the most part his job consisted of pointing people in the right direction. Still, he was very much of the mindset that he should not waste any opportunity presented to him, and in that space, he was presented with the opportunity of familiarizing himself with any number of things which could either benefit dogs, cats, birds, fish… and the things that might be good for some but bad for others… And then, sometimes, a customer or another would have their pet with them, and those would be his favorite days. Alright, his favorite days were the ones where Maya stopped in for a visit, with Elliott, or with the dogs.

Meanwhile, there was school, his first semester at his new school now not so new and unfamiliar as it had been in the beginning. Having his friends there, Ramona, and Gaby and Ari, made a world of difference. There was no doubt that he would have made friends in no time, whether or not he already had one foot in the door thanks to Ramona, and he did have other classmates he was close to, but those three girls… they had become his unit at university, and he was thankful for them each day. In just these weeks since he'd known them, they had just been indispensable. Ramona had already known him, already been a friend, which was good enough to put him in the other two's good graces. And once they were aware of his situation, his juggling of school and work being on the whole the means to an end where he got to be with his son and look after him, they had just swept in like a trio of fairy godmothers to help guarantee he got to do the most of that.

They had all been at the house several times now, doubling study sessions with opportunities to see little Elliott Friar, and hold him in their arms, and just melt every time for the sweetness of him. Ramona would joke that, if nothing else, the boy would absorb a fair amount of Spanish, with how the three of them would end up speaking it at him, or singing it to him.

As Lucas had gotten more familiar with his school and work schedule, he had been able to manage that time as best as anyone could, all with this goal of gaining back the most time for him to dedicate to his family, to his wife and son. No matter what he did, it never felt like enough, but that didn't stop him from enjoying every minute, every second he got. Pappy Joe would tease that he'd never seen anyone so happy to change a diaper.

Joke or not, it was sort of the truth. Lucas wanted nothing more than to be there for Elliott, regardless of the task. At the end of the day, all the work he put in, toward his education as much as his jobs, was for him, so he might give his boy the future he deserved. He had never felt as though he understood his father, his mother, so much as he did now that he had Elliott in his life. He would look upon this little human, created of Maya and him together… and he was so precious, so fragile, and so, so very loved, so much that the very thought of his life without him in it felt wrong.

It would make Lucas wonder sometimes, about Kermit Hart, about Dylan's mother, too… What could make a parent able to leave their child behind? He'd wondered it before, sure, but now that he had a child of his own, it was just… And the real surprise in all this was that the feelings he felt with regards to this departure… they weren't necessarily rooted in anger. Maybe for Kermit's sake at least, after having seen him these last several months, interacting with Maya, with Sam and the younger kids, and now with Elliott… He mostly just felt bad for him, to think that he could have been brought so low, when it was clear now, to look at him, just how much his children meant to him.

"Why aren't you dressed, I thought you said…" Maya came up into their room to find Lucas buttoning up his shirt.

"I was, and then someone… I'm not naming names, but someone thought I needed a splash of something more to complete my look. We disagreed," Lucas informed her, taking a look to where Elliott lay in his crib, staring up at the mobile hanging overhead.

"Oh," Maya laughed, walking over to get the baby.

"Hey…" Lucas turned to her again. "Are you going to bring up…" He didn't need to finish his sentence. Looking at their son all the while, Maya knew exactly what he was asking. Would she ask her father the question that had been plaguing her over these past couple weeks? They were headed to his house for dinner that night, a tradition instigated ever since the family had moved into its new home.

"I don't know," Maya told him, never taking her smile away from Elliott's face. He looked so happy, carefree, and all she ever wanted was to be inside that joy bubble with him. Looking to Lucas though, she knew he would only go along with what she wanted, no matter what. If she didn't want to bring it up, he would keep his mouth shut all night and play along, and if she decided to ask… for better or for worse… he would be there, too. "What would you do?" she finally asked. He let out a breath, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"If it was _my_ father… Maya, I don't know, I mean… It's different for us. No matter what, he…"

He was always there. And if Lucas thought something might be wrong with him, he would just ask. They weren't the same people though, and their situation was so, so very different. He knew where Maya stood, after having been apart from her own birth father for so long, and all the emotions she'd carried inside her heart and mind. And now that Kermit was back in her life, genuinely back, and wanted… now he might get taken away from her, not of his own will, and permanently. He could understand why there would be safety in not having a definitive answer. But for all they knew it wasn't what she thought, and wouldn't it be better if she knew for sure?

"I think… I think you already know what you need to do, just like I think your gut's told you enough already, and the reason you don't want to ask is…"

"Because I know the answer," Maya quietly replied. In her arms, Elliott just had his head resting to her shoulder, like he could sense her distress.

The trio got into the car and took off for their dinner, leaving Pappy Joe to have a quiet night at home on his own. He had a standing invitation, same as the rest of them did, but he did enjoy his alone time every now and then, too, so they left him to it.

Arriving at the house, they were greeted by Sam at the door. The thirteen-year-old uncle was quick to turn his attentions to his nephew, as he was allowed to take the boy from his car seat. He had always been very good with him, from the day Elliott was born, and now four months later the baby practically grabbed for the boy whenever he came to pick him up.

"Hey, El," Sam laughed, tipping his head back to keep his nephew from getting his fingers all up in his glasses. "We want to try and show him sign language," he turned to his sister and Lucas now. "He's still kind of young, but it doesn't hurt to start early, right?" Before either of them could ask who 'we' was, the sound of steps bounding down from above heralded the arrival of Lucas' cousin, Dora Cassidy.

"Hi!" she smiled, seeing the new arrivals and hurrying up to briefly hug them both before turning to the baby in Sam's arms. Elliott liked her very much, too, especially the loose ringlets of her hair, which he'd attempt to grab. Maybe anticipating this, Dora's long hair had been pulled into a bun over her head. "Hi, Elliott!" she greeted the baby, both aloud and signing. "Is it okay if we take him upstairs?" she turned to Maya and Lucas once more.

"Maybe stick around for a while, so everyone can say hello," Lucas told his cousin, while Maya went digging in Elliott's bag and pulled out a bottle, which she gave to her brother.

"You know how to get this ready for him, yeah?"

"I do," Sam nodded, and they were off.

"Didn't know she was going to be here tonight," Maya turned a smirk to Lucas, as he set down the empty car seat and followed her toward the kitchen.

"Neither did I," Lucas chuckled. "From what I've been hearing though, he's been spending a lot of time Aunt Dot and Uncle Emmett's house, too."

"Is that right?" Maya's smirk expended. "Oh, my dear Sammy…" she hummed, like she was already imagining how she might tease him some more.

In the kitchen, they came to find Dora, Cara, and Eliza were working together to ready Elliott's bottle, while Kermit held up little Wyatt so he might see the baby who had since gone from Sam's arms into Abigail's.

"Why does it look like you were in the middle of putting on a play?" Maya asked her sisters when they briefly left Dora's side to come say hello. The pair of them were wrapped up in what looked like bedsheets, coaxed into looking like dresses with long trains dragging on the ground. "Or a wedding…"

"For Halloween!" Eliza proclaimed, giving a swish of her train.

"It's not even October yet," Maya pointed out with a smile, ignoring Lucas' looks as they attempted to call her out for having already started to sketch costumes for their son.

"Almost though," Cara told her. "So we have to start getting ready. Mom makes our costumes."

"What are you supposed to be exactly?" Lucas had to ask.

"It's Eliza's turn to pick the theme this year," Abigail explained, as Elliott had been passed into his grandfather's waiting arms. "She wanted fairy tales, so she gets fairy tales."

"You could do it with us this year," Sam told his big sister.

"We could do that, yeah," Maya was all for it. She'd seen the family's Halloween pictures, from year to year. The 'theme' had been alternately picked between Kermit and Abigail in the early years of their marriage, and as Sam was born, and then Cara. Then when Sam had been four, he'd gotten to pick, and the year after that Cara had gotten the choice. Soon enough, the rotation was going this way, eventually picking up Eliza, and Wyatt just last year. Much as she had not said a word about it, Maya was very happy to get to be involved, after all this time.

The great Halloween scheme took up most of the time leading up to all of them sitting around the dining room table for dinner. While Sam and Dora were off with Elliott and the bottle for their experiments in sign language, Maya had been commissioned by her young siblings to draw what they would become, the better for their mother to bring their creations to life. They had more or less everyone sorted out by the time they had to clear away the paper and pencils and get dinner served. Lucas had gone up to get Elliott back, settling him in his car seat, which found its way near his and Maya's chairs.

As worried as Kermit and Abigail had been that the kids would soon get past the initial shine of being near their sister and eventually show regret for the home they had left behind, the city, the school, friends… none of it had passed. After having spent some time out here with Maya already, they had found plenty of love for Austin as they had done for New York. They had come to a home they had immediately gotten to love, too, almost like going into a nice hotel and actually getting to stay there and make it your own. School was a bit of a mixed bag, but that would have been the case back in New York, too.

Sam was used to be the kid younger than his classmates, and even though it wasn't ideal for him to have to start over with people he didn't know and who didn't know him, he was adjusting. For one thing, he had Cory Matthews on his side, and as to friends, well, there were plenty of connections for him in that school. He had been introduced to Michaela Zhu over the summer, who had managed to skip sophomore year to find herself a junior, like Sam, while two years below, along with Dora, he had taken what had been an inevitable link to August Matthews and started cultivating a genuine friendship. To see the four of them together, it was hard not to get a bit… maybe not emotional, but definitely awed for the echo it created.

"A Hart, a Matthews, a Zhu, and a Friar of another name," Mr. Matthews had been the one to put it to words. "Now all you need is a Garcia and an Orlando."

Meanwhile, there was Cara, who'd struggled in the beginning, finding her way with in the sixth grade with a teacher so different than her old one back in New York, which only tapped into her insecurities even further. She'd found the start of her turnaround after getting to start her guitar lessons again. She'd had classes back in New York, and she'd had a great teacher, which made her apprehensive about starting with a new person. But she had finally done it, early in the school year, and she had made fast friends with her teacher's daughter, who was a year below her in school. The lessons and the new friend had managed to soften the edges a bit for Cara, and she had started to make a turnaround in her school work.

Down in the third grade, Eliza had gone into the school year with readymade friends thanks to summer camp, and really of the four of them kids, hers had been the easiest adjustment. Wyatt, for his part, was finding preschool to be very interesting. The kids in Texas were very different from the ones in New York, from what he'd been telling them, and he actually really enjoyed this notion, and the discoveries that came with it.

By now, with a month of this new school year under their belts, they were all settled in, which was great, truly. But then it was inevitable, as soon as she would think this, Maya would find a footnote to this thought. _If Dad's illness is really back, it'll reassure him to see everyone's okay, everyone's got people around them in case he goes and…_

"Maya?" Abigail's voice pulled her out of her mind, blinking.

"Yeah? Sorry, I was just…" she shook her head, trying to think of an excuse, to brush it off. Dinner was over, and at some point everyone else had gone off somewhere else except for Lucas and her, and Kermit and Abigail. Wyatt had wanted to hold Elliott, so the kids had all gone to sit in the living room, where Wyatt could sit on the couch and be handed his little nephew, under the watchful eye of his big brother, while Dora and the girls looked over Maya's sketches and discussed their costume some more.

Maya looked to Lucas for a moment, and she knew that he understood where her head had gone. She didn't want to make such a big thing out of this, but she still hated to even bring it up…

She had to be brave, no matter how much this scared her… Every day her son was growing, and in time he would be looking to her, to Lucas, to set examples for him. She had to conquer her fears, if not for herself then for him, right?

"Dad… Are you okay?" she finally asked, looking across the table to where Kermit sat. Going by the look on his face, on Abigail's, too, they had both been waiting on the other side of this moment for a time. That was already a part of her answer right there, wasn't it? Somewhere inside, it felt like she'd started to tremble, and it all came to resolve itself in a prickling in her eyes signaling a rise of tears. "Dad…" she breathed.

"Look, this might be nothing, alright?" Kermit was on his feet at once, coming around the table so he might sit by her, taking her hand in his. Abigail, after a moment, came to sit closer, too, next to Lucas, who was at Maya's side already. "I've just been a little… off, that's all. It doesn't mean anything, not yet, maybe not ever."

"You went to the doctor?" Maya asked.

"Not yet," Abigail replied, showing her own opinion on this matter. Kermit let out a sigh. Already he'd been under his wife's glare about this, but now coupled with his eldest daughter's glare, he had little room left to go.

"I will go, I will, just… I need time, I need…" He didn't want to know, didn't want to hear that this was bad again, didn't want to hear… that it could be even worse, that it could be the worst. On this, Maya could hardly argue, seeing as she'd been in the same position up to a minute ago, but at the same time…

"Dad, you have to… please… If there's any difference to be made, if…"

"I know, Maya, I…"

"I'll go with you," she cut in. Kermit looked at her, his baby girl, so much of Katy in her, but so much of him, too. His eyes said it all. He'd let her down so many times in her life, and he could live to be so old and still not be through repaying her for it. This… This was something he could do, would do, for her.

"Okay… Okay."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	54. Starting Small

_Chapter 54_  
_Starting Small_

Somewhere in the middle of this week, Lucas had gotten to think of how Elliott was very close on being five months old, with the month of October crawling to its end day by day. And from there, the notion that this was only one more month away from having him reach six months had also come into play. Six months… half a year… It just didn't seem possible that their baby boy could be coming on half a year already. Only the blink of an eye ago he had been a tiny crying thing, placed in Maya's arms, and another blink before that, the two of them had been having what could be described as a sampling of pregnancy tests while a Halloween party raged on below. There was no way…

"Hey, check him out, Action Man!" Pappy Joe chuckled, looking to Lucas and then back to Elliott, on his tummy on the couch cushion next to him where his great grandfather could keep a close eye on him, even as he seemed off in his own world of adventure, making unintelligible noises but overall very jolly. "If you ask me, the kid's going to be a natural rider someday."

"Yeah, okay, if you say so," Lucas chuckled, coming into his son's line of sight, where Elliott saw him and smiled at once. If that was not a sight to look forward to at the end of the day… "Yeah, I missed you, too, Sprout," Lucas picked him up, bringing him close and kissing his cheek. Elliott stared back at him, poking at his face with his fingers. "Okay, not the eyes, we talked about this," Lucas smirked, dodging the curious hands.

"It's in his blood," Pappy Joe maintained his argument. Lucas looked to his son, thinking of all the times Maya had called _him_ Huckleberry and teased him, and thinking about his grandmother and her stables… Maybe that was true, but he wasn't about to imprint some career plans on Elliott when he couldn't even speak yet, or walk, or express his own desires.

"Yeah, well, so are a lot of things," Lucas smiled before handing his son back to Pappy Joe. "Where's Maya?"

"Upstairs, napping, while I'm on the clock," he replied, making faces at Elliott all the while. The boy grasped at his beard. "Oh, he's strong!" Pappy Joe intoned. Lucas smiled, watching the two of them, before heading up the stairs to find his wife.

The last couple of weeks had been hectic, just a bit. By chance, Kermit had been able to see his doctor just days after the dinner where he'd agreed to go in, on Maya's plea. He'd been about to be scheduled to be seen in November, but then there had been an opening, and he had taken it. As agreed, Maya had gone with him. After the appointment, though they had yet to hear the results, Maya had clearly been operating on the assumption that they would be getting bad news. She'd been going to her father's house almost every day, lending a hand where she could, the better to take some of the load off of Kermit. He hadn't wanted her to go out of her way, but then he got to see his daughter, and his grandson, too, so he could accept the trade-off in the end.

He had gotten his results a few days ago, if they could call it that. All the doctor could say was that the tests had been inconclusive. He agreed that some of what Kermit had been feeling could potentially be seen as troubling, but it still wasn't enough for him to warrant so much worry. Until they knew more, all he could prescribe was for Kermit to take things easy. This in turn left Maya to carry on her visits, looking over her father, helping Abigail, and the kids, and her grandmother. Lucas could see that the whole thing was starting to wear her down, and he wanted to help, wanted her to slow down, but what was he supposed to say? _Don't_ help your family because your father might be sick again? There was no way, but still he… he wanted to help, and he could only do so much. He was swamped, too.

Coming up to their room, he found Maya right where his grandfather had said she would be, on the bed, though she was not sleeping, or at least she wasn't sleeping anymore, if she had slept at all. She was just lying there, petting Trix as she lay next to her, while Lou was at her feet. She turned her eyes up and spotted him.

"Pappy Joe says Elliott is going to grow up to be a rider," Lucas informed her with a smile as he walked up. Maya gave a sound that suggested she'd been hearing the same thing. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he looked at her with thinly veiled concern. She needed the rest, she did. Beyond her father, looking after Elliott wasn't always playfulness and tummy time, though they did their best to hold on to those parts the most. She worked so hard to give him the best of everything, the best of herself. He might not remember this time when he was older, when she'd have gone back to school, to work, but the effects would still be there, growing on, like ripples in a pond. "Maya…"

"Lucas, we need to talk…" she cut in before he could continue. He looked at her before taking the dog and setting her on the floor, much as she resisted. Lucas drew himself closer while Maya sat up.

"What's wrong? Is it your father? Did something happen?" he asked, taking her hand.

"No, that's still the same as it was," she shook her head.

"Your mom?"

"No, no, she's good," she promised. "It's about us, okay?"

"Us…" Lucas asked, unsure where this was going. There definitely was something going on, and whatever it was, he had no idea, and he felt as though he was supposed to. "Is it me, did I…" he started, but was cut off with a finger to his lips. He got the message, had to let her speak. She was staring back at him now, and whatever was going through her mind, it wasn't coming any closer to turning into words. The longer it took, the twistier the path of her thoughts became, she looked… Well, she looked like she was about to cry. "Hey…" he touched her face, setting aside this request for silence. "What's the matter?"

She stared at him a moment more before moving to rise from the bed. He followed her with his eyes as she went to her dresser and pulled something from behind the framed photo of the two of them and Elliott on the day they'd gotten married. She returned to stand before him and handed the hidden object over to him. It never registered until after it had reached his hand, until he looked down and saw that clear plus sign in the middle of the stick.

"I was going to wait until you came home, I swear I was, but I just couldn't wait anymore, I… I had to know…" Maya told him, as he turned stunned eyes up to her, then down to the stick, and back at her again. "Surprise…" she half-heartedly intoned. He looked at the stick, the pregnancy test, back to her, down to the plus sign, and her… "Going to give you a minute there, I was kind of doing that, too, for a little while after I took it," Maya pointed to the test. "Still kind of doing it in my head," she looked down, trying and failing to figure out what to do with her hands.

"Maya, how…"

"Do I really need to explain it to you, we've done this before," she shook her head to herself. "I'm sorry, the sarcasm is hard to control right now, whatever I say, it's not…"

"But we… and Elliott…"

"How is it that you look more shocked now than last year… What am I saying, it hasn't even been a year, Lucas. This time last year, I was also pregnant. My _mother_… my mother hasn't even had this kid she's about to have, and I've had two different ones growing inside _me_, how… What am I supposed to do?" she asked, feeling just on the edge of hyperventilating. "I have to go back to school, I have to finish, to graduate. I have to _work_, especially if we have to provide for not one but two kids by next spring, I… There's too much going on in my brain, I want to be happy, I want to freak out in a good way, but I can't stop… I can't…"

Seeing her start to panic now, it felt like Lucas' mind snapped back into place, just enough that he thought to rise from the bed and embrace her. He wrapped his arms around her, and he kissed her, and she kissed him back, and for several seconds the world washed away. The frenzy settled down, chaotic waves receding until all that was left was the two of them… no… not just the two of them.

They were having a baby… another one… He couldn't be sure of the math, but in all likelihood, this one and Elliott wouldn't even be a year apart from one another, or just barely. It was… so much to think about, but right now, for this one moment at least, they had to look at it from the point where there was no panic, only joy. And that place absolutely existed. That place was the one where they had always envisioned having more than one child, more than two… All the small details that could deviate this one thought, from age, to money, to time, to plans and careers and education, those needed to wait while they focused on the one thing at the core of it all.

When the kiss slowed and broke apart, they looked to one another, and Lucas looked to the test still in his hand, and the reality of it left a smile on his face, which spread on to hers as well. He hugged her again, pressing kisses to her shoulder, which made her laugh.

"We're going to have to tell him," she pointed out.

"Who, Elliott?" Lucas asked, looking up so he could see her.

"No," Maya laughed. "Your grandfather. He lives with us, and if this goes the same way as last time, it won't be long that I'm going to be sprinting off to the bathroom in the morning and oh, I am so not looking forward to that," her face scrunched up at the memory. "He can keep a secret, can't he?"

"Pappy Joe? Absolutely, yeah," Lucas assured her, looking to the stick now like he didn't know what to do with it. Maya took it back and returned it to its hiding place. "Hey, come here, sit, tell me…" he took her hands again, led her to where they could sit together on the bed. "How long have you known, or…"

"I started to suspect…" she nodded, understanding. "I guess it was yesterday morning, when I went to see Brianna at the hospital."

Their young friend had gone into labor in the middle of the night, delivered her child when all of them had been asleep. She hadn't been alone, she'd had Ainsley with her, but she didn't want to make anyone run out of bed and show up at the hospital when they all had babies of their own to look after. They would have gone anyway, given the chance, but that didn't matter anymore. Brianna had her baby, and now the newborn had several eager quasi aunts and uncles eager for a chance to say hello, to bring gifts… Upon arrival, she'd found the young mother asleep, while the equally young father sat nearby, with the bundled up baby in his arms. He looked as though he'd been awake all night, which he likely had been, but all the same, he only had eyes for the newborn, didn't look up until Maya whispered his name.

"Hey…" she smiled. Jay looked around, realizing suddenly that it was morning. "Everything go alright?"

"Yes… yes, very much," Jay nodded, looking back to the baby. "Look at her…" he smiled. Maya happily did so, all the while trying not to have it look like she was checking what they'd all had no choice but to be left wondering. There was no need to for any kind of paternity test, was there? All they had to do was look at the baby to know which of those two boys had been the one to get Brianna pregnant. Maya had looked, and the girl may have been his daughter in his eyes no matter what, because he loved Brianna and would be with her regardless, but now they knew she was also biologically his as well.

"She's beautiful, Jay, congratulations," Maya told him.

"Her name is Zoey," Jay had revealed, when he had passed her over into Maya's arms.

Looking to the sleeping newborn, Maya had been taken down a road of memories, of her own newborn child, just a few months ago. It felt like an eternity had passed and also no time at all, there was no middle ground. She had never been so aware of the complicated state of time until she'd had a child, even when he had been little more than a sprout growing in her belly.

When she had left the hospital room, promising she and Lucas would visit again when Brianna was awake, she'd walked down the hall and just felt so… spent. Yes, the last few weeks had been complicated, with her father's situation and looking after Elliott, everything… but deep down there was a part of her that kept feeling as though this wasn't all of it, couldn't be. She had been tired, sure, exhausted, but she was a new mother… She and exhaustion were like frenemies at this point. They didn't care to be near one another, but they had begrudgingly started to work together.

This was different, but also not unfamiliar, was it? No, she'd felt this way before, she'd…

Oh… No… No, that couldn't be… She couldn't be…

She'd pushed the thought out of her mind for the rest of that day. Out of her mind might have been an exaggeration. It couldn't completely leave her, it would always be there, constantly on the periphery, like a stalker, tapping at the window, begging to be let in. Up to that point, she could still tell herself that she was reaching, that she was just overloaded, and it wasn't what she thought it was, that would just be… soon… it was so much, so soon…

By the next morning though, _this_ morning, her window stalker had started putting more ideas in her head. What if this wasn't a baby, what if she was sick? What if this was genetics, spinning the wheel and landing on her? That idea had come and knocked the breath from her, looking to her son as she'd gone and taken him from his crib and it was as good as letting the stalker in. Fine. She'd get a test, she'd get to the bottom of this… one way or the other.

Today was not a grandparent circuit day, though she _was_ headed to her father's house later on. She got Elliott in his car seat, bowing out of her walk with Pappy Joe because of 'errands.' Mostly, she'd ended up at the drugstore, with the baby in his sling rather than dealing with the stroller. Anyway, she kind of preferred having him nearby today.

She had walked with him up and down each aisle, maybe two or three times, before finally sucking it up and heading to the one aisle she had avoided all this time. Looking at all those boxes, it was taking her right back to the day, not one year ago, when she'd been in the same position, only now she had Elliott with her, being his usual cute and cooing self. How could he be anyone's big brother at this point?

She couldn't stand around here too long, already the entire image was leaving her feeling awkward and she wanted to get out of here. She didn't buy eight of them this time, just the one. It would either be positive or negative, and if it was positive she'd get it confirmed, but for now… One box, that'd be it. She took it, added it to the rest of the items she'd put in her basket as she walked around in denial. After putting on the best casual performance of her life at the cash register, ignoring the look from the woman on the other side as she rang up the test and looked at Elliott and her, they left the store.

There was no real plan about what she would do next. She had the test, and of course it wouldn't do any good if she didn't take it, but even so she couldn't think about the result, and what it would mean, or… She would wait for Lucas. Yeah, that was what she'd do. She would wait until he came home from school today, and she would tell him what was going on, and then they would find out together. That was the plan, that was a good plan.

She didn't go to her father's house. She wanted to, and a very big part of her definitely felt she needed to, but… If she went in there right now anyone who saw her would know that something was up, and… She couldn't have that, not right now. She texted and made up an excuse, promising herself – and him, whether he knew it or not – that she would make it up. Her father simply told her not to worry about it, that he'd be happy to see her whenever.

The rest of the day had felt like a flashback to her cutting school, hiding out at the mall. She went to the bookstore and strolled through the aisles for a few hours after grabbing lunch. By the time she got back to the car with Elliott, she had a load of new books to read, which she sort of regretted almost immediately, thinking of how that money might have been needed in the months to come, if that test turned out to be positive.

When they'd come up to the house again, Maya knew she wouldn't be able to wait until Lucas came home. She meant to, she wanted to, but it wasn't going to happen. It was already driving her mad to wonder if she was right, and he wouldn't be home for a few more hours, and she'd already gone through this mindset… _not one year ago…_ The thought kept ringing through her head, over and over, like the summary of her panic.

Elliott had been passed into the care of his great grandfather, received happily so by Pappy Joe, who had gotten caught up in watching some old cop drama being rerun every afternoon. It had been something he and Susannah Friar watched together, every week, and now to see it again, the memories… Maya left him as he held Elliott facing the television, the better to tell him who the people on the screen were and what they were doing.

Collecting the bags from the car, she'd taken everything upstairs to the bedroom. Everything had been quietly put away where it belonged, like some last ditch effort at waiting for Lucas, but the bags were soon empty, and all that remained was that one familiar box. She hid it in a drawer, started to walk away, then changed her mind and went to take it again. She stared at it, then shook her head to herself and slipped it back in the drawer. She went to lie down on the bed, tried to get herself settled to possibly go to sleep. Pappy Joe had the baby, she could afford herself a nap. She definitely needed it.

"Hey, Pappy Joe?" Maya stood on the steps five minutes later. He looked up at her. "I'm going to take a nap, you're alright with…"

"More than fine, you go ahead," he told her, and she thanked him before going back up. The dogs seemed to have caught and understood the word 'nap,' as they soon went and followed, finding her as she stepped back out of the bathroom with the box and went to the bathroom. Very carefully, she stopped them from following her inside and shut the door.

The feeling of standing there, staring at that box, was eerily familiar. She had been so… startled… like she couldn't believe that she was in this position. It felt ridiculous, especially now, to experience this moment in this way, but there was absolutely no other way to explain it. In this case, it was the nearness of the two events that made her feel it again, she knew. If this had happened in… two years, even one year, she would have been so much calmer, so much more…

It wasn't that she didn't want this baby, if there was actually one on its way, not at all. If she could somehow push aside the noise in her head, she knew that this was the reason she was so freaked out, in that this would be a wonderful thing… so long as they could provide for that child in the way it deserved to be provided for. All these nerves came of a fear that they would mess things up and then this new baby… and Elliott as well… would suffer the consequences.

Nothing would change the outcome of the next few minutes, so she'd finally just torn that box open and gone through the steps, almost on autopilot. She'd set the timer on her phone, and then the wait began. She just sort of stood there for a few seconds, looking at the stick sitting on the edge of the sink, took a step back, and forward again… She washed her hands, undid her hair and shook it out, twisted it up into a bun… Not done yet. She looked around at the bathroom, searched for something to fix, or clean… She'd just done that the day before, it was spotless, thank you very much. She picked up Elliott's bath towel, felt its softness, reset it in its place…

She'd silenced her phone, didn't want Pappy Joe to hear the timer go off, and caught it just in time to see the seconds tick from two, to one, to zero. Time was up, this was it. She felt at the rings on her finger with her thumb as she stepped back up to the sink and picked up the test. The plus sign stared back at her, clear as day. Now she knew, now it was real.

"Oh…" she'd breathed. "Okay…"

For a few more seconds she'd just stood there, staring at that test as it sank in. They were having a baby, a second baby… kind of literally, with how young Elliott would still be by the time… Oh…

By reflex, she'd gathered everything up again, buried everything but the test itself at the back of a cabinet for now, before stepping out of the bathroom. The dogs were still there, waiting, and they followed her back to her room. After a beat, she'd stuck the test behind the wedding photo on the dresser before moving back to sit on the bed. She closed her eyes, took a breath, and another… The truth did not feel as though it set her free right about now. She was still prisoner of her thoughts, and they were having a riot in her head.

The dogs were pretty good at climbing on to the bed by now, and they did so now, finding their way to her, like they were saying 'we heard there would be napping, why aren't we napping?' Needing very little coaxing to just go with the flow right about now, Maya had gone to lie down, and Trix and Lou had settled in with her. Thinking back to when she'd been pregnant with Elliott, she had to wonder if they already could tell, if that was the reason they were sticking close to her, the way they'd done back then…

At some point, she must have dozed off for a while. But then she was awake again, she suspected, because Lucas had just arrived. A minute later, she'd been proven correct, and he had arrived, and she had just told him. Now, here they were.

"I'll call to make an appointment with Dr. Tanaka, make sure everything's alright," Maya told Lucas. At this point, she didn't even feel that she needed confirmation. If she took away all the assumptions she'd been making, writing off her symptoms to exhaustion and stress, she would have put it all together days ago already.

"Tell me when, I'll be there," Lucas nodded. It wouldn't matter if he had class, or work, he would be with her in that office. She smiled.

"So many flashbacks right now…" she shook her head. Lucas laughed.

"Don't even need a refresher," he agreed. Rather than make her laugh along, it made her look concerned again. "Hey," he reached up and held her face in his hand, stroked her cheek with his thumb. "We'll make it work. We always do. Look around…"

"I know, I do, and I'm trying to see it that way, too, but right now it's just… it's too new, and it's a lot, and I can't see the other side yet, it's just… chaos," she closed her eyes.

"I get that," Lucas told her. She felt him take up her hand in his, not to clasp it but rather to set it against her stomach, his hand over hers. She opened her eyes again, found him smiling back at her. "Remember this?" It tugged her own smile back into place.

"I remember," she nodded.

"So… what do we call this one? Can't be the sprout, we already have one of those," he joked, lifting her into a laugh now. Maya took a breath. Through all the mess of the last couple of days, she'd barely been able to think about this baby outside of the constraints of fear and uncertainty, not until it was her and Lucas, right here. Somewhere inside her, this tiny little creature was beginning, so small, but soon growing, and growing, and then she would just wait on the day when she felt it, barely at first and then much more… their little…

"Bee…" she smiled, set her second hand to sandwich his one between both of hers. Lucas smiled back, leaned in to kiss her, bowed to kiss her hand.

"Hey there, little Bee…"

They had allowed themselves just a bit more time where this truth belonged only to them, though they had already decided they would tell Pappy Joe, the better to ensure they'd get to share the news on their own terms. After the shock of it all, it kind of felt nice to go around and have this secret between them, a good secret. They had to be careful about it, they knew. Last time, Pappy Joe had figured them out before they could even share the news, and that was before he actually lived with them.

"How do we do this?" Lucas whispered, as he and Maya were clearing up after dinner. Pappy Joe had been happy to take his great grandson out for an evening stroll, which left the two of them free to plot. And still, they felt the need to whisper.

"I don't know yet. Any ideas?" Maya asked. Lucas considered this.

"So far, step one is making sure he doesn't have Elliott in his arms when we tell him," Lucas declared, which made her chuckle.

"That's a good step to have," she agreed. "Then what?" Under the 'pressure' of her stare, he couldn't help but smile. He knew she still had those worries in the back of her mind, but for now they were focusing on the good, and he wanted to make sure she got through the rest of this night and got to remember that this was the day they found out they were about to be parents again, not the day when the world turned upside down.

"I know," he replied, just as the idea came to him, and he grabbed her hand to have her follow along, which she did, giggling away.

When Pappy Joe returned from his walk, Lucas and Maya were sitting on the couch, huddled up together. Elliott was returned to them, tuckered out and ready for a quick bath before bed.

"Want to play a hand?" Lucas asked his grandfather, while Maya stood and carried Elliott up the stairs. Pappy Joe considered this for a moment before giving a nod.

"Let me grab my deck," he pointed up before starting his own ascent.

He kept the cards in his room, they knew, but most importantly they had just needed him to go to his room without it being because he was on his way to bed. Lucas waited until he'd reached the top of the stairs before climbing slowly after him. By now, Maya would have set the baby in his crib, playing along as though she was gathering his things for after his bath. When he walked by the room, she dropped pretense and went up to the door, joining Lucas as he came up, both of them approaching quietly toward the bedroom at the end of the hall.

_"Now he opens the drawer,"_ Maya signed, and Lucas pressed his lips together so not to laugh.

_"Now he opens the box,"_ he signed.

_"Now he sees, now he wonders..."_ she continued, but paused purposefully…

Pappy Joe emerged from his room, with a baffled sort of look on his face. He held the items he would have discovered, sitting on top of his deck of cards, which he kept in an old cigar box. In one hand he held a pair of Elliott's socks, fresh from the laundry basket. In the other hand, he also held a pair of Elliott's socks, only these ones had been retrieved from the storage in the basement, where they had started to pack away those belongings they could still use, potentially, for any child that may follow, now that Elliott had outgrown them. The size difference wasn't so strong, but it was enough to leave one such as Pappy Joe to put it all together, especially as he came to find his grandson and his wife standing in the hall, waiting, smiling…

"You're not playing tricks on me, are you?" he asked, stepping toward them.

"Pretty mean trick that would be," Lucas smiled, looking to Maya, who could only give a short gesture as though to say 'surprise…' Pappy Joe looked to the socks in his hand, and he burst out laughing, before breaching the space between them and hugging the pair of them. Here they were… Tome two, chapter one…

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	55. Buzzing With News

_Chapter 55_  
_Buzzing With News_

The next few days had been like a strange play. They weren't telling anyone about the new pregnancy, and on the whole there hadn't been so many symptoms, so really if not for that test and the small epiphany Maya had reached at the hospital, she could have not known or simply not been pregnant at all. It almost became something they didn't think about, early on as they were. She had her appointment with Dr. Tanaka coming up, and they would know for sure, but until then… Everything was normal. She really _was_ pregnant, wasn't she?

Almost to prove a point, Maya felt that all too familiar lurch in her stomach upon waking, the morning of her appointment at the hospital. Some part of her still felt the need to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to wake up anyone, even though she knew this would probably be a pointless endeavor. She could be a stealth superstar as she bolted out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom, even as she shut the door, and then the morning peace would be ripped apart by the sound of her retching.

Back in their room, it absolutely woke up Lucas, who had not been a deep sleeper ever since he'd become a father. He woke and felt the empty spot next to him at the same time, processed the sound in the next split second, looked over to confirm that Elliott slept on, and then he got up and hurried over to the bathroom, even as a barely awake Pappy Joe came teetering up from his bed in the room across from the bathroom.

"Can you…" Lucas asked, pointing back where he'd come from, and his grandfather went off to look in on the baby while he stepped into the bathroom to find Maya sitting on the floor. She looked like she was just waiting to see if it was over, if her stomach had anything else it would like to evacuate. "Nothing if not prompt, huh?" Lucas asked, grabbing a washcloth and running it under water from the sink. Maya didn't reply, and he didn't expect her to. It was never pleasant, regardless of the reason, but of course they both knew it would keep happening. They used to joke about how it would come, when she'd been pregnant the first time, as though the moment she woke up, a countdown clock was set off. And it never failed, not as long as the morning sickness had lasted.

"Elliott?" she asked after a few seconds.

"Pappy Joe's with him, don't know if…" Lucas started to ask, only to hear the baby crying from down the hall. "It's fine, just take a minute," he told Maya when she looked like she was moving to rise.

"I probably look like a ghost or something right now, I'd just make him cry more," she sighed, abandoning the effort.

"Where are we on the 'I like jokes' scale right now?" Lucas inquired. Maya looked at him, considering.

"I don't know, let's find o… Nope…" she sat back up, unleashing wave two.

By the time Maya had gotten out of the bathroom, Lucas had already been sent off to see how Elliott was doing. It wasn't that Maya didn't trust he would be fine with his great grandfather, but if Lucas was there with him, maybe it felt a bit like she was there with him. She had made her way downstairs to find Lucas sitting at the table, feeding Elliott a bottle, while Pappy Joe was finishing up something for her to eat.

"Thanks," Maya nodded to him, taking her plate to the table. Elliott was plenty happy to be looking at his father right about now, especially if it meant he got to eat. "You know, I remembered it was bad in the beginning, but I did not remember how much." The feeling would pass, they both knew it, and still it was difficult for Lucas not to show concern, and for Maya to really feel anything except the urge to crawl back into bed.

"Susannah had some choice words for me when she was pregnant with Tom," Pappy Joe recalled, tipping his head to his grandson and great grandson. Lucas blinked at the thought of his sweet old grandmother cursing, even as it pulled a small smile out of Maya.

After the rocky star to their morning, it had been a slow going of getting ready before they headed out to the hospital for Maya's appointment.

"Never seen a man so happy to be spending his day babysitting a four-month-old," Maya hummed as they reached the hospital. Pappy Joe had just texted her, with a picture of him and Elliott attached to the message. They were back on the couch again, for what she suspected would be another 'thrilling marathon.'

Being back at the clinic today, knowing what for, still felt like so much déjà vu. Even the receptionist, and the nurse, and then Dr. Tanaka herself, saw the two of them arrive with that same sort of surprise. It wasn't as though they didn't already know why Maya was here from when she'd made the appointment, but again she had been a patient of theirs up until last spring and now here she was again.

The whole appointment had been loads more echoes of the previous fall, but it all boiled down to what they had known already. It was official now, baby Friar number two, their Bee, was due the following May. Everything looked good so far, according to Dr. Tanaka. She had not been Maya's doctor from the start with Elliott, but she had been there for the home stretch, just as she had seen her mother through the twins, and MJ, and now this fourth which was due in a handful of weeks, so they knew they were in good hands.

"Three of you now in May, huh?" Maya breathed as they walked out of the clinic. "I'm starting to feel outnumbered… Then again, I already am, between you, and Elliott, and Pappy Joe…" she counted off. "No pressure, Bee, but if you were a girl, we could tag team on those boys," she whispered down at herself, making Lucas snort. "Not that I wouldn't be perfectly happy with a house full of Huckleminis running around," Maya assured him, swinging to stand facing him now instead of walking at his side. "I'm just saying…"

"I hear you," Lucas nodded, still chuckling at the new nickname she had added to her ever expanding roster. "It's hard not to picture it already, one way or the other… So long as it stays that way, that no matter what we end up with we'll be happy… then that's all that matters, yeah?"

"All it had to do was exist, and it did that, so… here we go," Maya smiled, and he leaned in to kiss her, the better to truly hold on to the moment and how happy they felt. Now that it was all confirmed and they were looking to what the next few months would be, and then what life beyond that, with two children under the age of two to provide for, they were going to have to tackle what it would mean, and what they needed to do, but they weren't taking that jump just yet. No one knew but the two of them and Pappy Joe, and knowing each other, Maya and Lucas both knew they'd want to get some handle on the future before they let anybody else find out.

"Is it too early to think about names?" Maya asked as Lucas looked up.

"Uh…"

"I'm just saying, last time, we had it, but then I changed my mind, but that was the right call in the end, yeah? He looks so much like an Elliott, and…"

"Maya…" Lucas looked back down at her, with what felt like 'I'm sorry' eyes.

"What?" she asked, following his gaze and turning her head to find he was looking at her parents, staring back at them from where they'd stopped after turning down the corridor toward the clinic. "Oh, now I know why the date sounded familiar…" she quietly told herself.

"Appointment today?" Lucas guessed, just as quiet, as they had no choice but to start walking in the direction to meet Katy and Shawn.

"Yup," Maya told him. "Any chance we could be here for another reason?"

"I don't think our faces know they're supposed to play it cool," Lucas shook his head at her.

"Hey, was worth a try," Maya sighed. So much for keeping it a secret.

The way her parents were looking back at them, she could just translate the narrative that had to be going through their heads, which went something like 'why are they here, right outside the clinic and looking all shifty, they couldn't possibly be… unless… wait, are they? Is she? _Is she?_' They stopped as they stood facing each other, like the four corners of a square. Silence hung over them, like each side knew very well what had to come next, a question or a revelation, but neither of them was able to start. Maya looked to Lucas, who could only give her a look back to say what he felt. This was her choice.

"We… are... having a baby… again," she finally had to look back to her parents, nodding her way through her stilted reply.

There was not even the space of an errant worry that this news would be met with anything but pure happiness, allowing that small bubble of 'focuse on the moment, leave the logistics for later' sentimentality to grow stronger.

"This is unbelievable…" Katy smiled, hugging her daughter.

"You're telling me," Maya laughed, hugging her back even as she was very aware of her mother's belly nudging at her, with her little brother soon to be born. Meanwhile, Shawn had given Lucas' hand a shake even as he clapped him on the shoulder.

"Didn't take long, huh?" he teased.

"Dad!" Maya 'scolded' him, though she couldn't keep from smiling, especially as her release from her mother's arms had brought her into her father's. The way he held her, careful like he didn't want to shake her up too much, made her appreciate what this unplanned early reveal now afforded her. When they'd been pregnant with Elliott, keeping that secret as tight lipped as possible… save for those other accidental discoveries… it had made it so their families were on the whole on the outside of the early days experience, but now she kind of liked the idea of changing that. There was always that thing where telling people early might have been bad luck, or potentially… No. They weren't going to go there. This was good, this was really good.

It also left them with a choice to make. Now Pappy Joe knew, and Katy and Shawn knew… What now? It kind of didn't feel right to keep at least some of the others in the dark… like the rest of the parents…

"You just had your appointment with the doctor? How did that go?" Katy asked her daughter and son-in-law.

"We did, yeah," Lucas confirmed. "Went great," he turned to Maya.

"May 5th, just about," she told her mother and father.

They had to go, with Katy's appointment to get to, but they would call each other later that day to talk some more. Left to themselves again, Lucas turned to Maya.

"We might have missed each other if we hadn't stopped," he pointed out as they went on walking to leave the hospital.

"Yeah, but I don't know, I'm kind of glad we didn't," she admitted, which made him smile. He was kind of glad, too. "We should to go see your parents now," she decided even as she said it. Lucas stalled and turned to her.

"Yeah?" he asked, feeling a bit of a heart skip at the thought. He could already hear his mother losing it at the prospect of another grandbaby.

"Yeah," Maya smiled at him. "And then mine, the other mine…" she went on, with a mental image of her own at the thought of getting to tell her father.

The last time, she hadn't so much told him as he had found out because her siblings had found out and he'd overheard. And then he'd flown from New York to Houston, shown up on her doorstep with a box of presents… and he'd collapsed… and that was when she'd known of his illness… The memory was by now the very definition of bittersweet. On the one hand, it forced her to think about his health, and the possibility that it might have been failing again, but on the other, it had enabled the two of them to start on the path to where they were now, back in each other's lives…

"Just those four then?" Lucas suggested. "The siblings, the friends, maybe we keep them waiting a month or so?"

"Those four and my grandmother," Maya countered, and Lucas agreed.

"We are going to need a plan… two plans…" he thought aloud as they once again started walking. This challenge was met with a look of inspiration growing over his wife's face.

"I'm sure we can come up with something…"

As they drove toward the Friar house, Maya checked in with Pappy Joe, letting him know everything had gone fine, and also telling him about their run in with Katy and Shawn, which was now sending them on a small mission of sorts. Would he be alright to watch Elliott a while longer?

"Don't you worry now, Maya, I've got little man all set. If I remember it right, next episode is going to be something."

"Still watching his show," Maya told Lucas with a laugh after they hung up.

"I remember if I was ever at the house on Saturday nights, I'd be sitting on the couch, next to my grandmother, watching along. She would lean in and whisper to me if there was anything she felt she had to explain so I would understand."

"Kind of like what he's doing with Elliott now," Maya nodded, smiling.

"Except I was about five years old at the time, not a baby," Lucas pointed out.

"Please tell me there are pictures of this somewhere."

"As it turns out, we're kind of going just the right place for those."

It used to be that Thomas Friar had an office, not too far off from the middle school. When Lucas had been suspended, he remembered how everything had felt as though it had gone so fast. They had called his father, and he had arrived, not five minutes later, on foot. It had made for a very tensely quiet walk back to his office. Since then, specifically about two years ago, when Lucas had left home and gone to Houston for college, his father had decided it was time to change things around. He now worked out of home, in his office there. He would usually go out and meet his clients where they needed him, often at their homes, sometimes where they worked. Some long standing clients, a lot of them having become friends of the family over the years, would come over to the house when they needed to see him.

Thanks to this restructuring, Lucas could generally count for finding both his parents at home on any day, provided they hadn't gone out for one reason or another. Just to be sure, Lucas had called ahead, saying he had something to drop off at their place, and his mother had told him to come right over. His father was expecting a client, but not for a little while.

"She might not let us in, we did not provide her with her Junebug," Maya teased as they pulled up to the house.

"Under the circumstances, I think we might get a pass."

They let themselves in, calling out to know where Tom and Melinda would be. Lucas' mother called back and directed them toward his father's office. His mother would at times help his father with some of his paperwork, playing the part time assistant, which appeared to be the case now, as they were in the midst of sorting through files together.

"Just one minute, we'll be right with you, Steven's on his way," Mr. Friar explained.

"Not a problem, we'll go wait in the kitchen," Maya told him, getting hold of Lucas' hand and pulling him away. "Right, so who goes up there, you or me?" she whispered to him.

"Maya…" he looked at her, no need of an answer.

"Alright, so what do you think, got some tape?"

It had become something like a symbolic little installation on the Friars' kitchen wall, on the space over the large window, that they had a row of various wooden forks. Melinda had been inspired and had these made by Dot Cassidy. Each one represented a member of the family. There was one for herself, one for Thomas, and Pappy Joe, and then Lucas and Maya each had one, and by their side was one more, for Elliott… Now, they couldn't exactly go and commission one more from Lucas' aunt right then and there, but they could just sort of… have a place holder.

They'd had to make it quick, before Lucas' parents came along. He had just managed to get back down and sit at the table with Maya before they arrived to join them.

"Do you two want anything to drink?" Melinda asked, already pulling glasses from the cupboard in such a way that the question could have been 'what are you having to drink?' Soon, there were four glasses of iced tea on the table.

It was ridiculously complicated for them not to say anything, to play it cool until one of the two managed to notice something. Lucas and Maya had gone to the trouble of sitting on the side of the table with the window at their backs, so the Friars would be sitting facing it. Of course now they had to wait and hope, somehow, that one of them would look up and see before Mr. Friar's client showed up.

Minutes went by. They exhausted just about any subject they could think of, from Elliott – which was most of those minutes – to Lucas' school, Lucas' work, and Maya's… well, what was she up to these days? Lucas could tell this was something that might pull her right out of her happy place and back to where they had not yet gone, figuring out what they would do when it came to _her_ education, and _her_ working…

"Hey, Mom, do you have pictures from when I was little, and we'd be at Pappy Joe's on Saturday night, me and Nana Sus?" Lucas turned to Melinda, who was on her feet and ready to go grab those at once. But then right at that moment, her husband happened to look up and notice the addition on the wall.

"Mel, hold on," he called to his wife as he stood, still looking, unaware of the discreet smirk shared between his son and daughter-in-law. Melinda came back now, turning her eyes up to where Thomas looked as well. She saw it at once now. It had been easy enough to plan this one, once they'd had the idea. They had an extra plastic fork from a recent take-out order, sitting right there in the car, in the space between the driver and passenger seats. Now it had been stuck to the wall with tape, next to the one Dot had made for Elliott.

The Friars looked back down to their son and his wife, in what felt like a comically timed synchronized motion. By then it was just about impossible for Maya and Lucas to keep from smiling, and still it did not keep Maya from turning her head back to have a look before addressing Lucas.

"Hey, that wasn't there before, was it?"

"No, don't think it was," he played along, doing his best to keep it together as his parents processed what they were slowly putting together. "Any idea what it means?" he asked Maya, who shrugged, giving him a smile that could toss his heart for a loop.

Right then, the Melinda outburst they had expected finally came to pass, the shock having given way to truth, and now excitement. She had hurried around the table, then stalled as though she did not know who to hug first, so she'd simply gone ahead and grabbed them both at the same time, while they close in around her. Thomas, knowing she was not about to let go any time soon, had decided to go ahead and join the embrace where he was able to find a spot. By the time his client arrived, two minutes later, they were all still sort of halfway holding on to one another, as there had been those same questions they had received before and the same answers added. Yes, everything was going fine, and the baby was due in May, like its brother and its father. There was a lot of happy blubbering, and some thinly contained emotion throughout, and it left the young parents to carry on their tour of happy news with a buoyant joy of their own.

Once they were back in the car however, knowing where they were headed next, there was a bit of a sinking feeling, a worry that sort of came hand in hand with being around Kermit these days. There was no definitive answer as to what was going on with him, _if_ something was going on with him again, but there wasn't a clean bill either. His doctor wanted him to take things easy, which meant that there could very well be something wrong, very wrong, and they just didn't know what it was yet.

Maybe part of the reason Maya was okay with their parents knowing was that… deep down… she worried that all those fears would come to pass, and if that was the case, then… then she needed him to know this as soon as possible. One more reason to keep fighting, right?

"How do you want to do this one?" Lucas asked as he drove them from one house to the other. When she didn't reply after several seconds, he stole a look and said her name.

"I'm just going to tell him," she finally replied, still half in her thoughts. "No big tricks or props. I just want to look at him, say the words, and know that he knows. "I didn't get to tell him last time, I… I wouldn't even have wanted to tell him last time. But I do now." _And it might be my only chance._

"Okay, sounds good," Lucas quietly replied. He hadn't even been able to consider, up to this point, how the situation might weigh on her. Stuck in this place where they really didn't know one way or the other how things would go with Kermit, this moment in their lives, this happy, wonderful moment, would have to co-exist with the knowledge that thing might take a turn for Maya's father. Lucas didn't like the idea of her going through that while she was also pregnant, but they didn't get to decide, did they?

They arrived at the house to find Maya's grandmother busy at work on the flowerbed in front. Lucas offered to assist her, and she accepted, so he joined in, exchanging a smile with Maya as she carried on into the house to find her father. They had figured out already that she would tell him, and then she would tell her stepmother and grandmother. The kids would be at school now, and for the next little while, so there was no rush.

"Hey! I didn't know if you were coming today," Kermit sat up from where he had been lying on the couch. "No Elliott today?" he asked as she came and sat with him.

"No, no, he's at home with Pappy Joe, he's got this whole… tv marathon thing going with him, it's sweet, even if Elliott is probably getting so far as 'hey, there's people moving out there,'" she explained.

"I used to do that with you, too, when you were little," Kermit laughed. "I'd have you there on my lap, and we would watch movies. I'd try and cover your eyes when there was too much blood, or violence, or other things you shouldn't have been seeing, and you would just think it was a game, pushing at my hand with yours and laughing…" Maya smiled, for the story, for how it made him happy to recall and to share it, too.

"How are you feeling today?" she asked.

"I'm good, you know, tired sometimes, but then I don't sleep well most nights, I just… It'll pass, it…" He looked at her, the silence holding, showing how she could see through him as much he could see through her. She didn't believe him, and he didn't believe himself either, except he wanted to… needed to. "I'm not giving up, Maya, alright? Whatever it is, I'll get through it. I finally have a shot at being your dad, I'm not just…"

"Dad, I'm pregnant," she cut in, and he stopped. She let out a breath. That wasn't exactly how she'd meant to tell him, but there it was now, no taking it back. She'd said it, and now he knew… She smiled, waiting for his shock to dial back, so she might know…

The way his face broke into that smile, oh… He pulled her into a hug, and she burrowed herself into it. She heard him laugh and there were tears in his voice, good ones. The news of Elliott's coming had been a shock, a wakeup call. This one, right from his daughter, not hundreds of miles away but here at his side, it was a blessing, proof positive that the past was well behind them now. And yet… A lot could be said in how a person held another, and as her father held her, sounding just overjoyed, his arms… his arms told another tale, of urgency, of fear. Putting it all together, what she was left with was one whole image…

Whether he said it or not, whether the doctors said it or not, he believed he was dying. He believed it, and in his mind it would not be years from now but so much sooner, soon enough that now this news, this promise of another grandchild in the near future, was both the best thing he could have heard and also a source of concern as to whether he'd get to see that child born, get to hold him or her…

"I'm so happy for you, sweetie…" he finally spoke, pulling back to look at her and reaching at once to brush tears from her face.

"Not telling anyone else except the parents and the grandparents right now, okay?" Maya sniffled. "It stays between us."

"Not a worry, secret's safe," he vowed. "When… when are you…"

"May 5th," Maya replied and he smiled.

"Day after Star Wars day," he remarked, and it got her laughing. He went on telling her how funny it would be, if the baby was born the day before the due date, which made it so that, by the time Abigail came around, and Lucas came into the house with Kermit's mother and Maya's grandmother, the two of them had stopped crying and were now in a prime mood to share the good news with a couple more people.

When they left to return home, before the kids could arrive and wonder what the two of them were doing there, Maya was just a bit in her own head, but she turned to Lucas when he asked how it had gone with her father.

"It was good, it was… mostly… mostly good," she looked down, letting out a breath. It wasn't over. She wasn't going to look at him like he had one foot out the door already. Whatever came next, right now she had her father back, she had her whole family here in Austin, both sides together, and she had this little Bee in her belly. She would hold on to that and maybe… maybe…

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	56. There Is Only Reality

_Chapter 56_  
_There Is Only Reality_

After the day they'd had, with the constant roll of emotions brought on by the doctor's appointment and a triple round of baby reveals with their parents, Lucas and Maya had returned home feeling like they could not wait to be back with their boy. Elliott had quickly shown how this feeling was a mutual one, greeting his mother's appearance with such a smile as to light up her soul. The four of them had a quiet evening, spent in part with Lucas sharing the pictures they had gotten from his parents. Pappy Joe had received these with some smiling of his own, finding images of his late wife along with their young grandson. It didn't take much to get the man sharing stories, and with this, well… they were set for the night.

In time they had all gone off to bed, carrying those stories with them like tickets to sweet dreams. Even so, when Maya opened her eyes next, it was still very dark, and the clock informed her that she had been in bed for all of two hours.

For a long while, or what felt like a long while, she stayed as she was, only moving so far as to seek a new position which would have half a chance of returning her to sleep. This wasn't even a case of bodily discomfort, or any number of pregnancy related issues. She'd had them all, and it was way too early for any of them. Anyway, it didn't take a genius to figure out what might keep her up. So sure, she knew why she was awake, but that didn't mean she wouldn't do everything in her power to ignore it and drift off once again.

Another look at the clock showed she had only been awake again for about a quarter of an hour.

With a sigh, she sat up in the quiet, moonlit room. For a few seconds she just sort of… waited… like she expected to need to run. It was silly, just a bit, but after the previous morning's return to all of that, she had to wonder.

Instead of a feeling somewhere in her chest though, what pulled her from bed was the light sound of Elliott in his crib. He wasn't sleeping either, and any moment now he was likely to wake the others up, too, if no one intervened. So, Maya stood, carefully creeping across the room to look into the crib, getting hold of Elliott's hand for a moment, and smiling as she watched something like understanding wash over him.

"Hey there, Sprout," she whispered before she picked him up. "Now what's got you awake now, huh?" A quick check showed this was not a diaper situation. "Well it's not time for you to eat yet, so you just close your eyes for now, yeah?" She walked with him, back and forth across the room, for a few minutes. Now and then she would try and see if he was asleep again, but she'd find him just as awake as before. So, they kept on walking. Maya hummed as lightly as she could, so not to wake Lucas while also hoping that the vibration in her chest would work to slowly soothe Elliott right off to sleep. "I will keep on rotating through those lullabies as long as it takes, you know that?" she told him, after they'd gone through several of them. "And then I will start over if I have to, but I'd really prefer if I didn't, so let's sleep, yeah?" She really wished she could take her own advice right about now, especially when her yawn went and just got Elliott crying.

"I'm up…" Lucas jolted awake, sitting up, and Maya sighed, already working to calm the baby down.

"I'm sorry, it's fine, go back to sleep," she told Lucas, shifting into more calming steps, willing herself to be the embodiment of calm so their son might feel it, too. "We're alright, aren't we?" she asked, kissing his head as she moved. It was no use though, and the longer it went on, the more it got to feel like she was failing, and then her calm demeanor would reveal itself for being a total sham. "Fine, tag in," Maya breathed. She went around the bed and passed the crying boy into his father's arms.

"Mr. Elliott, what is the matter?" Lucas inquired, rubbing at his back.

"I think I kind of spooked him and…" Maya told him, feeling something in her throat now but not the something that would send her for the bathroom. It was a wave, carrying a swell of emotions she hadn't seen coming until it went and crashed over everything. "It was just a yawn, I didn't…" she tried to breathe deep, to stop from crying, but it was no use.

"What's happening? Hey… Maya… Maya, look at me, talk to me," Lucas pleaded, finding himself all of a sudden between his son crying in his arms and his wife having some kind of break. He couldn't exactly set Elliott down and tell him to wait.

"I couldn't… sleep, I… There's too much, in my head, I thought I had… a handle on it, it's just, I don't know…" she gestured around them. Another breath, another… Keeping the baby close and shielding his eyes as best he could, Lucas stood up and went to turn the lights on, bringing them from the dark. Here they were, in their room, they could see it again. To be honest, he'd been expecting this for a few days already, since the afternoon when she'd told him they were having another baby. As much of a change as the first time had brought into their lives, now, with this second go around, it was like they were so much more aware of what they were getting themselves into. And yeah, he was concerned, too, but it wasn't going to hit him the same way it would for her.

"Maya, hey… I'm right here, we're right here," he reminded her, looking to Elliott, who was thankfully responding to all of this by starting to calm down. He wasn't there yet, but he was on his way, and that made one of them. "Everything's…" She looked at him like she knew he was about to say the word 'fine' and she wholly disagreed with it. "Nothing is wrong right now, is it?" he redirected, applying to logic. She looked at him, considering his words but keeping quiet still. "And it doesn't have to be, or at least… whatever comes, we can deal with it. Look at us, we're here, we're doing great, aren't we? Look at this guy," he turned about, giving a look to Elliott. The baby was quiet now, blinking his little eyes. Maya was looking at him, and when she touched his hand he looked, and he found her, and he reached out for her. Without a moment's thought, she was reaching for him, too, and Lucas passed him back.

"Hey, baby boy…" she breathed, doing a bit of calming down, too. She had him now, and then Lucas had the both of them, as he put his arms around her. Maya lay her head to his shoulder, and for a little while they remained this way, the three of them huddled together… _Four of us…_ "I don't know how to not feel like this, like everything is about to just implode and there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"Just talk to me," Lucas quietly pleaded, stroking her back with one hand, joining the other to the hold on Elliott. "Don't hold anything back." She didn't reply right away. Caught up as they were in this family hug, she just wanted to soak all that up, which would be so very hard if she started to air out the things she was just now trying to push back into the recesses of her mind. But she felt… she felt her son's tiny fingers poking at her chest, where they'd reached over her collar. She felt his little body all warm and alive and clinging to her… And she thought about that other baby, still so small and so far from being someone able to live outside her body, left to her care, to get him or her to the point where they would be a family of four… She considered herself, and her husband of a month and a half…

"You know, I just realized… I would already have been pregnant, the day we got married," she stated. Lucas smiled.

"Yeah, guess you would have been," he leaned to kiss her forehead. "That'll be a story one day." They were quiet for a moment. "Maya…"

"I'm just… I'm scared, okay?" she cut in, grabbing her courage with both hands as the thoughts were hoisted back into the light and away from the confines of her mind.

"I am, too," Lucas told her. "I'm trying to look on the bright side, to say that everything will be alright, because maybe it'll be easier to make sure this comes true if I do." Maya looked down to find that Elliott, after his lullabies and all that crying, had finally gone and fallen asleep. She let out a breath. Rather than to return him to his crib, she kept him there in her arms as she pulled back from Lucas' hold and went to sit on the bed. Lucas came and sat with her. They would talk this through. It was the only way to try and chase some of those fears away.

"When we were expecting Elliott, we were both in school, and working. Then I had to stop, when I got further along, and we moved here, and I was going to take a year off school, and I'd go back to work. We had a plan. The last few months, I've been focusing on him, like I'm supposed to, like I wanted to," Maya looked down to their sleeping boy, feeling that quake in her heart, the one she got when she'd look at him, from the day he was born.

Sometimes it didn't feel as though her body could ever contain her heart, for how full it had been made, being Elliott's mom. Now that little quake felt different, as though everything was being made to expand, to account for the child growing inside her, and this left her heart just sort of… tender, sensitive, and all the more vulnerable to incoming troubles.

"Except now, next fall, when I'm supposed to go back to school, I won't be able to go. I'll have another small one just like him, holding on to me, depending on me."

"You can go the year after that," Lucas quietly replied, not wanting to get in the way of her saying her bit but also feeling as though he needed to speak up.

"No, I don't think I can," Maya replied, lightly stroking the baby's cheek with her thumb.

"Maya…"

"I'm not saying I'll never go back, it's just… We're going to have two of them to provide for now, and school is expensive," she looked at him, and all he could see was how much it pained her to make this choice but she was ready to make it anyway, for their son, for their children. "We always said we wanted to provide for our family ourselves, didn't want to depend on our parents so much that they became a crutch, so much that we couldn't do this without them."

She was right, of course she was, and still he hated this. He hated that she was the one who had to give something up like this. He would have done it, in a heartbeat, if it meant helping her, helping them, but that didn't work so well, did it? She was having the baby, she was caring for Elliott, as she would with this new boy or girl expected in the spring.

"I could take next year off school, stay with the baby and Elliott," he still had to offer it, even if he knew she would say no. "You should get to continue," he pressed on. "You have two years left on your degree, and me… five more years… Which one of us is going to have more student debts to pay?" This had given her pause. He'd made a fair point and she couldn't deny it. Still… she didn't want him to have to do this. That didn't mean she had much of a choice to address the possibility.

"You've wanted to do this for as long as I've known you, and before that, too," she looked at him, those big sad eyes…

"And it took you all this time to find your place," he countered. "I don't want to take that from you, I… I want you to have that, more than I want to be a vet." He was telling the truth, she could see it, and it struck her with a combo of knowing how much she loved him, and how much he loved her, too. She held on to Elliott with both arms in order to lean forward and kiss her husband.

"No one's making decisions tonight, okay?" she had to ask anyway.

"Sure," he shook his head.

"But if you do this, then you need to finish your four years somehow," Maya declared. He opened his mouth to counter, but she was ahead of him. "If you don't go the whole eight years, you need something else. We both finish," she told him, holding out one hand, waiting for him to shake it, binding them to this vow. They were making a new plan, and right here was the start. Just looking at her, he could see some of her assurances strengthening again, and after seeing her not too long ago… He shook her hand.

"We both finish," he repeated, and she nodded. _Good._

"So what would you do?" Maya asked. "You're just starting your third year, but there's the whole… trajectory, with the other school…"

"I might have to go an extra year," Lucas spoke as he considered the question. "I'll have to go and talk with someone about all this, see what I can do to make sure I don't have to graduate much later than I would have if I'd gone in like this from the start."

For a little while he sat there, thinking about his options. All this time, since they had learned they were going to be parents the first time, his entire goal had been to keep going, to get through his years and get the job in the end, to provide for his family. Now, that family was expanding much faster than they had anticipated, and the goals had to change. If he wasn't going to be a vet, then… what would he be?

"Are you okay to get back to bed now?" he looked to Maya, who was definitely starting to look like she was dozing off.

"It's almost time to feed him," she shook her head. "I've got him. And you have class in the morning."

"I don't know if I can even fall asleep now," Lucas sighed, rubbing at his eyes.

"Lie down, I've got this," she smiled at him. He chuckled, doing as he was told. If he could feed that good mood in her, he wasn't about to deny her. So, he lay down, and as she went to turn off the lights, Maya started back on her lullabies, soft like a dream. She returned to sit up on her side of the bed, with Elliott good and snuggled up, where she could reach over and trace her fingers along Lucas' arm. It made him laugh. "Shhh, you have to sleep now," she 'scolded' him, and he gave her a look of amused apology before complying.

Soon, he slept, though Maya carried on, her voice lightly filling the room around them. She felt better than she'd done earlier, when she'd woken up, and there had been… everything that had followed… The conversation had helped, set her back on balance, but she knew it wasn't a resolution, it was a barely traced road map. Right now, it was all she had to hold on to, if she didn't want to feel the way she'd felt before.

Elliott had woken up just as she'd come to expect he would, she'd set about feeding him. She looked at him, and already it felt like she couldn't see him without thinking about the other… her little Bee. They were a pair now, in her heart and her mind, and when she looked to the future, it all revolved around the two of them, and Lucas and her, as they set the world in motion for their children. They were the reason she was so afraid now, their lives, their future… She thought about her own childhood, the difficulties she and her mother had faced. The circumstances here were different, she knew that, but even so the very idea of those kids getting anything less than a wonderful life…

All these years ago, when she and her mother had come to Texas, they had left behind a chapter of their lives, made something new together, and it had been so much better than what they had back in New York. Maya had not forgotten, not any of it. And then she'd gotten pregnant at the age of twenty, just two years older than her mother when she'd had her, giving birth to her son then at twenty-one. Much as her circumstances had been different than her mother's, in almost every way, she had been reasonably concerned at the thought of doing right by this child. They had support though, so much of it. This house right here, that was their biggest miracle, and then they had Pappy Joe, and they had all those eager grandparents… Her parents had had none of that, only each other, just about, and then… then it had just been her mother and her…

No one would blame her for being concerned that history would find a way to repeat itself, not even Lucas, who was just… so unlike her own father had been, back when she was a kid. Despite everything she knew, all the things that should have reassured her they had a handle on things, she remained afraid. Maybe… maybe a part of that was because of her father, about the idea that she might lose him, much sooner than either of them would have hoped. It was all just so much to think about to begin with, ensuring that they would give their children the lives they deserved, without adding to it the idea of losing her father just when the two of them were starting to be good for each other.

Later on, when Lucas would wake up to start and get ready for class, he would wonder how much time had passed before Maya had finally gone to sleep. She was sleeping now, next to him, turned on to her side so as to face him, with her hand there on the mattress as though she had dozed off looking at him. He very carefully leaned in to kiss her temple without waking her, before getting up and heading over to the crib, where Elliott was very much awake, too. He was twisting about, like he might be trying to turn over on to his tummy, though he stopped and reached out a hand at once when he spotted his father's face swimming overhead.

"Morning," Lucas whispered, picking him up and kissing him on the cheek. "Think we have time for a quick story, huh?"

Next to the rocking chair, he found a notepad and pen, scribbled over with Maya's handwriting. There were words, and notes, in the format that could only be lyrics. Lucas was proud to say that, thanks to the guitar lessons he had gotten from Willow, he could recognize the melody Maya had traced in, and he knew it was Kermit's lullaby, the one he'd composed for her, when _she_ had been a baby. He had never written any words, had struggled now to even remember how it went, and he had told Maya she could rectify that, find the words now, so she might pass the lullaby on to Elliott. There had been so much going on since that day, and she hadn't done it yet, but now…

"Look at that…" he whispered, looking down to Elliott, who was busy attempting to get his hand in his father's nose. Keeping a playfully wrangling hold on his son's hands, Lucas had read the words, imagining her sitting in that chair, exhaustion challenged by inspiration. She might not even remember doing it until she saw the page again. Lucas left it on the nightstand next to her before leaving the room so she might sleep on. She would still be asleep by the time he came back up – Elliott left in his great grandfather's care – to get dressed and leave for the day. First thing he would do, when he arrived at the university, would be to make an appointment to speak with someone about his new academic plans.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	57. Welcome Advice

_Chapter 57_  
_Welcome Advice_

The first thing he'd done upon arrival was to book the appointment. They would see him at one, which left him all morning to just get ready… and wait… and wonder… Sitting outside his first class of the day, Lucas pulled his laptop from his bag and opened the university's site. He didn't want to just walk into that office in a few hours and have no idea of what he was going to do, if he was really about to completely reset his trajectory. What would he be?

He couldn't stop thinking about earlier, when he'd been awakened by the sound of his son's cries and then Maya… It pained him so much to see her like that, to feel like he couldn't reach her. She was so ready to give it all up, school, her career goals, because it felt like the only way, when it had taken him until that moment to stand up and put his own plans on the line. Would a part of him regret not getting to follow through on veterinary school? Sure, how could he not? But he would do it, one hundred percent he would, because in this moment, with them about to have a second child, it was just the right thing to do. It was not his one and only, he could find something else that would make him happy at work, just as he would be, at home.

"Aren't you busy enough as it is without _more_ classes?" a girl's voice pulled him out of his head and he turned to find it was Gabriela, who had arrived and peeked in at his screen. Ramona was just a few steps behind, along with Ariana. The three of them each had to-go cups in one hand, while Ariana had two. She stepped up and handed Lucas the second of hers.

"I was just… passing time," he tried to brush it off, the better to get them all away from the subject before they could really delve in.

"By looking at the nursing department?" Ramona chuckled, now that all three of his friends and classmates were getting a look. Lucas sighed, shutting the laptop screen and sticking the computer back in his bag.

"I'm curious that's all, I…" he started to say, then stopped.

Who was he kidding? He was going to have to tell people, professors and classmates, about his intentions, father than just disappear. He didn't even know how this was going to work. Was he going to have to finish this semester as it was, or would he be out of class until January for the winter semester? It had to be too late for him to just jump into classes in progress by now, they were already halfway through… Either way, they were going to know something was up, and he couldn't come up with a valid reason why he was doing this which would not result in them misinterpreting one part or another.

"I may have to…" No, not may… "I'm switching my degree." There was a cascade of surprised pauses followed by expressions of shock and disbelief all around him. He had a full array of reactions, from asking him if he was crazy, to wondering if something bad had happened to him. "It's not that I don't like the classes, or that I don't want to it anymore. My circumstances changed, that's all."

"What circumstances?" Ariana asked. "You just got here." He could have said he couldn't talk about it, anything to keep from getting into it and revealing the secret when they had made a deal not to tell anyone outside the parents and grandparents for a while, but it was just like last time, wasn't it? Sometimes, the moment came and the answer was the truth over the secret.

"Maya is pregnant, we're having another baby," he said the words, and he felt himself smile as he did. He hadn't really done that since they'd found out, had he?

It was a good thing he got a moment to bask in that feeling, as the next one saw him buried under a pileup of arms and loud congratulations from the girls. At this point, the whole university might have known. When Ramona, Gaby, and Ari pulled back, he called on their discretion, and each vowed not to say a word. They would have to tell it to their faces, as all three were smiling from ear to ear. They wanted to know everything, but seeing as there was very little to share up to this point, this did not take long. The three girls already loved Elliott so much, they could not wait to meet this new baby.

"I still don't get why you have to change your degree," Ramona shook her head as they all sat on the ground with him.

"It's a lot of things," Lucas told her. "Maya is concerned about her ever getting to go back to finish her own degree, and me, I… I can either spend the next five and a half years balancing school and a couple of jobs and a couple of kids… or I can do what makes sense if we're going to be looking after those two kids the way we need to."

He was already foreseeing what those years would be like, with him being in school, especially those that would require him to drive to and from another school that was an hour away. This would have to be joined with who knew how much work, and then the kids… It still tugged at his heart to say or think that word, plural… He didn't want them to grow up and see him as someone who was barely there for them, who barely had time for them. It was such a feeling, to know that their happiness and well-being mattered more to him than this career he had imagined in his head for who knew how long. He didn't have a single regret.

"So that's it then, you're leaving?" Gabriela asked, indicating the classroom behind them.

"I don't know what's going to happen yet, I have an appointment at one to talk it over, but that's why I was looking at the site, to figure out what I'll tell them I want to do instead."

"You're already more than halfway through this semester," Ariana pointed out, swishing her cup around in her hand. "You're finishing this one with us at least," she guessed, and the other girls agreed. In no time, the laptop was back again, and they were all squeezed in together to look at the university's site, searching for a new field for Lucas to study.

It was complicated. If he had been in his first year, even his second, it would have felt less daunting, but he would have completed two and a half years already by the time he started over. Some things would very likely carry over, but then for whatever he would choose, to then try and keep it from turning into four years, his options would be somewhat restricted.

"It's not like you have to study something that leads to a specific job," Ramona told him. "The fact that you get your diploma has to be good for something."

"It does, yeah, I know," Lucas nodded. "It's just that I never really had to decide before. I always knew where I was going." He had known it since he was four years old, since he'd told his grandmother, Marianne, his mother's mother, that he was going to be a vet, to help her with the horses. She was dead now, had been since he was eleven, but he knew that she would understand his not keeping his word, for this reason here.

Lucas had not expected to have some kind of eureka moment, sitting there in wait of his first class of the day, and by the time he and the girls got up to head into the room, it mostly felt like he was more confused than he'd already been. Much as he tried to concentrate on his professor's lecture, his mind was just sort of miles away, back home… This was a moment where he needed to step up, as a husband and a father. He needed to do his part, he just didn't know what that part was, not yet.

Up to now, even with Elliott coming along, everything had been more or less straightforward, hadn't it? They had the house, and they'd just needed to fix it up, then they'd moved in, and Elliott was born, and he'd gone back to school, continuing on that same track he'd been on from the start. Four years here, four years there, except it had been turned to two and two years in one place and another, and four years more at a third place. Nothing had changed, except for one school, and more work, and a baby… Alright, a lot had changed, but in the grand scheme of things…

Now this was where things really changed. Suddenly it was this grand scheme that was having to change. Two children, two _babies_ really, who would be depending on both he and Maya, except Maya was forced to sit out a lot and he was the only player on the field, trying to score for the family team.

_Lucas: Are you busy? Can you meet me at school around lunch?_

The whole time as they had been looking at the site, him and the girls, Lucas had sort of known somewhere that he had one option, staring him in the face. As options went, it wasn't a bad one, but he still wanted to explore other avenues before he committed to this one. He _had _looked at his options, and though he'd hoped he might find something that would give him that instant feeling of 'why, yes, of course!' all he had really been left with was a lot of 'these are all the reasons why I don't want to or can't do this' more than 'that might be possible.' So, by the time he had gotten out of class, with the one survivor in his melee of candidates, he knew he had to consider it. At the very least, he had to figure out if this was going to be something worth putting on the table.

He walked into the university café and soon found his father had arrived. Thomas Friar was sitting at one of the tables, with a coffee and the school's paper, which he was now flipping through. Lucas walked over to him, and his father closed the paper as he looked up and saw him approaching.

"Don't think I'm not glad to join you here on any day, but am I right to think this isn't just a social call?" Thomas asked, as Lucas sat across from him.

"You are," he nodded.

"After yesterday's surprise, I can't imagine what this one's about," Thomas smiled, which made his son smile back, to see how happy it still made him.

"Maya and I were talking things over, about what this is going to mean for her, with school," Lucas started. He didn't need to get into the context of that conversation, even as he had a flash of his wife's face in his mind's eye. "When Elliott was coming, the plan was that she would take a year off school and then go back and finish out her degree, but now, with this new baby…"

"Right," his father nodded, as ever leaving the floor to him until he was rightfully done.

"For a while she didn't even see herself going back anymore, with the time going by, and the kids… That wasn't fair to her, I couldn't just let her throw all that away for something we did together. So, what we came down to is that I'm going to change my degree and be through with school here, in a year and a half or two, not five and a half."

There was a part of him that worried he might disappoint his father in some way, before he could even present his alternative, like the very fact that he was abandoning one road meant he wouldn't hold to a new one. It was silly, he realized it, but then it couldn't be helped.

"I'm meeting with an advisor at one," he went on. "And I've been thinking about what I would do if I wasn't going to be a vet anymore."

"What did you come up with?" his father asked, sounding intrigued, interested.

"I was thinking I might do what you do, work _with_ you," Lucas told him, holding his gaze, showing he was serious. His father looked surprised now, and whatever he thought of the idea beyond this, he held it back for the time being, to find out more.

"Is that something you want to do? Lucas, I understand what you want to do, and it's very admirable, to do all of this for your family. I just need to know that you won't grow to regret it."

"I won't," Lucas assured his father, and the more he thought about it, now that he'd put the idea out there… it really felt like the best option, if he was going to set aside his original goal.

When he was growing up, his father had taught him his numbers. It had always been _his_ thing, and nothing could have made him happier than to pass it on to his son. Lucas had many memories of sitting with his father, in his old office, as he would be shown how to do additions and subtractions, multiplications and divisions. It was like a game, and he wasn't half bad at it. When he'd started school, he was already ahead of the other kids. He was just good at it. And the business part… he didn't know all the ins and outs, no, but he had been around his father's work long enough that he understood what it was that he did. His father did good work, and Lucas could see himself doing it with him, especially if it meant he would have decent hours and he could be home with Maya and the kids at regular hours.

He told his father all of this, and then he stopped, and he waited. His father settled in his chair, reflecting for a moment before turning a look to Lucas.

"_Friar & Son_… Has a nice ring to it," he smiled. Lucas smiled back, more so as his father extended a hand across the table. He shook it. "So let's make it happen."

X

Maya woke up to mid-morning sunlight and what felt like the gift of a peaceful start for all of ten seconds, and then it was off down the hall. So much for that.

By the time she was able to get herself out of there and back to her room to look in on the baby, Pappy Joe was halfway up the stairs to get to her.

"I've got the little guy downstairs, breakfast is on its way," he informed her, and she could have smiled if she didn't feel like someone's shaky approximation of a human right about now.

"Thanks," she told him instead, and he tipped his head to her before leading the way down to the kitchen. She really hoped he knew how thankful they both were, Lucas and her, to have him around. Some days she imagined him not living with them and she immediately just had to go and hug him.

In the kitchen, Maya found Elliott, in his seat on the table, and he looked so jolly and happy to see her that she could almost forget the unpleasantness in the bathroom a few minutes back.

"Hey, baby boy…" she hummed, leaning close where she gladly submitted to his poking and prodding. From what she'd seen of the clock, Lucas would have been gone for a couple of hours already. "What have you and your Grand Pappy been up this morning?"

"We dealt with a stinky situation that required this young man get a bath. This might not be the best time for that particular story," Pappy Joe gave her a look and she didn't need to know more. "So instead maybe you can tell _me_ the story of what happened last night." He set a plate in front of her as he said this, and she ate half a toast before speaking up.

"Just had a bit of… I don't know, a panic attack or something," she admitted. She couldn't have brushed it off, not with him. He was looking at her now, like she was his very own granddaughter and he was all ears. So, she explained what had happened, to the best of her ability. Frankly, parts of it were only vaguely recalled now, like they had been a dream, or not even that. She remembered waking up, and not being able to fall asleep. She remembered going up and taking Elliott, singing to him, and then accidentally spooking him until he cried, being unable to calm him down and then for a while there things fell in the hazy category. But then she had Lucas, there with her, and she remembered his voice, pulling her back. She remembered talking with him, and the plan they had started to make, and then singing for him so he would go to sleep. Then she'd stayed with Elliott, and she'd fed him, put him back in his crib when they were done. After that… she mostly remembered waking up, and the rest, well… he knew.

"That is some night," Pappy Joe declared, now sitting with her.

"Yeah, good times," she frowned to herself. She wasn't even entirely aware of her zoning out until Lucas' grandfather tapped the table between them to draw her attention.

"Now, you have had yourself a couple of very… eventful weeks," he told her, which got her chuckling. That was for sure. Between everything going on with her father, and finding out she was pregnant, and everything it implied… It would have been weirder if she didn't have a reaction like that. "If there is anything that I can do, to help you just… lighten the load… I need you to speak to me, alright?" He looked at her with all that intent in him, and again it made her smile. She reached out, laid her hand over his.

"I know. I will," she vowed, as though she might as well have traced a cross over her heart.

"Good. Now, explain to me, what's this situation with your schooling?"

After breakfast, Maya had taken Elliott back up to hers and Lucas' room. With the way her mornings were looking to start for the next little while, she was being forced to miss out on a quiet start for the two of them, a tradition which had come to mean a lot to her since her son was born. Of course, now, every time she considered this fact, she had to face the wild truth that she was looking to her baby boy and he wasn't going to be her only one for much longer. In the following spring, she would have this boy nearing on his first birthday, all the while looking to a newborn babe once again.

"All the more reason to enjoy this time just you and me, huh, Sprout?" she whispered to the boy staring up at her with intent and curiosity.

Going around the bed, to sit on her side with the baby, Maya spotted the notepad, posed on her nightstand. She blinked. When had she put that there, what was… She picked it up, and slowly she remembered. She remembered sitting in that rocking chair, still humming for Elliott. When those hums had started to sound like her father's melody, she'd realized she was singing it, singing words… Soon, she'd grabbed the paper and a pen and she'd started to write. The shaky letters spoke of half-darkness and exhaustion, but they were legible, and with those and the notes she absolutely recognized what they were.

"Man, if I didn't know I was definitely not drunk…" she mumbled to herself before looking to Elliott, clinging to her collar. "Hey, you want to hear some tunes?" Maya smiled at him.

She had gone and grabbed her guitar, sitting in the corner of the room, before returning to the bed. Here, she organized a bit of a resting spot to place Elliott, where he might be propped up and looking back at her, his curious little fingers out of reach of the guitar strings. At the last minute, she arranged her phone on the night stand, so it might capture the scene, of her performance and Elliott's reaction. The pad sat next to her as she held the guitar in place and started to play, not so loud, and sing the lyrics she had written in the dark.

Kermit had told her how that little melody used to work wonders on her when she was little, and right about now, sitting here, looking at her own son, bringing the tune to life, he wasn't the only one brought to ease by it. He was dozing off, while she… she felt calmer than she had done since the previous night. When she'd finished the song, she'd turned back to her phone to stop the recording, looking into the camera with a smile and a tip of the head. _Thanks, Dad._ She sent him the video. She would play it for Lucas when he got home from school, but for now her father deserved to be the first to hear it.

She'd spent the next little while looking through her books and notes, everything from when she'd first been pregnant with Elliott. Right now, she really felt that she needed to rein in her focus, put herself back in that mindset of her first trimester, what she'd need to do, to get… She had never been so intent on keeping focus as when she'd become someone's mom, and now she was about to double up on all that. No more fear, not now.

"We are going to need a second crib, aren't we?" she sighed to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose, just as she heard the doorbell from downstairs. She hadn't realized how much time had gone by, and she was going to need to have lunch soon, wasn't she? As she got up from the bed, she stopped in to see that Elliott was asleep before making her way down to see who was at the door.

"… might dress up as a witch, warts and all, for the trick or treaters in the neighborhood. I have too much candy, as usual," a familiar laughing voice could be heard, joined by more laughter, from Pappy Joe. As she came down the stairs, Maya finally saw the white-haired woman standing with him, and her presence instantly added another notch on this day's improvement.

"Profess… Patty?" Maya corrected herself with a blink as the woman turned to her and beamed. "What are you doing here? I mean… it's really good to see you."

"Good afternoon, Maya dear," Patty came and embraced her as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "I would tell you that I happened to be in the city, like he'd have me say," she pointed back to Pappy Joe, "But I'd rather tell the truth." And that truth was easy enough to piece together.

"You called her," she guessed, nodding to the man who – to his credit – chose to assume his truth instead of pretending like he had no idea what the professor was going on about.

"He didn't tell me why," Patty specified. "All he said was, if I wasn't busy, you might benefit from a face to face chat." She finished this sentence with a look as though asking 'is that so?'

"Have you had lunch yet?" Maya asked her.

They decided to order in. There had been a brief thought to go out somewhere and eat, but in the end they had balanced this idea over what would be required and chose to stay here instead. Professor Robinson was treating her hosts for the meal and no arguments would be heard on the subject. While they waited, Maya had gone up and retrieved Elliott, finding him just on the cusp of waking. She brought him down the stairs and to the couch where Pappy Joe and Patty were sitting.

"Now would you look at this fella," Patty was all smiles, holding out her arms and receiving the boy, who showed hardly a second of discomfort before staring up at the woman with curious eyes. "All the pictures and the videos in the world don't do you justice," Patty informed Elliott. He got hold of her necklace and kept it grasped without pulling. "You like those beads, aren't they colorful?" the professor laughed, holding the baby's other hand and lightly stroking his fingers with her thumb.

"Why don't I go and keep a lookout for that delivery guy?" Pappy Joe stood up and started toward the door.

"Joseph," Patty turned her head back to him.

"Your treat, I know, I remember," he promised. Once he'd gone out the door, he could be seen through the window, taking a seat on one of the chairs.

"He's not subtle at all, is he?" Patty turned back to Maya.

"Please, he comes with a soundtrack," she breathed out, settling into the couch cushion at her back. "One of those old westerns or something…" It made her former professor laugh.

"Now, I have to wonder, what is it that compelled him to… saddle up… and have me drive over here from Houston?" she inquired, her gaze already recaptured by the babe in her arms. As such, she missed the debate happening on Maya's face. Pappy Joe had kind of put her in the position of having to share this secret of hers with someone else, when they had decided to keep it quiet for a few weeks. Still, for all that, it was like the professor had said. He wasn't subtle. And if he had called her over here, then it was his way of helping his grandson's wife. He'd called out someone he believed would be best placed to assist her, and only the fact that she knew he was right made it so that she convinced herself to give her the correct answer.

"Lucas and I are expecting another baby," she revealed, and the professor's head turned back to her at once. Her face fell into a state of shock, only to take a rousing upswing into happiness. She reached out one hand and took her former student's in hers, giving it a squeeze.

"Congratulations, Maya dear…" Patty told her, and it was as though they both realized these were the exact same words she'd told her nearly a year ago to the day, realized it as one. Even as they smiled, Patty Robinson was putting the pieces together now, of why she was called, and what this new pregnancy might mean for the young woman at her side.

"All this time, since before Elliott was born, I kept telling myself I would only take the one year off, and it wouldn't be a big deal. I would go back to school after that, finish my degree, but now… now I won't be able to go back when I was supposed to, not with a… a four-month-old and a fifteen-month-old at home. That means two years off, and that's… I can't even predict what my life will be like by that time, so what's there to say I won't be delayed again, I… I was just going to quit," she admitted. "Or maybe not quit but just… maybe I'd go back, in a few years, when the kids were in school, too, or something. For all I know, we could have a third by then…"

"Maya…" Patty said her name with so much sympathy but also pleading. She didn't want to see her abandon her studies either.

"I won't," she shook her head. "Lucas and I, we're trying to figure it out, we're both going to graduate, somehow, there's just no way of knowing when I will get there. And all this time, he's going to be out there, studying, working, and I can't… I was going to start looking to get a job, in like a month or two, but now I would have to go in, work as I keep getting bigger and more tired, and then I'd have to go on leave, for months, it… it wouldn't make sense. And there's my father…" she stalled, having laid out the mess that sat heavy in her head only to trail off quietly on the end. She bowed her head, feeling it had grown so heavy.

"Maya, what did I tell you, when you were going to be leaving the university?" Patty Robinson asked. She was still holding her hand, and Maya kind of never wanted her to let go. She lifted her eyes back up to her, sitting there with her son in the crook of her arm.

"That just because I wasn't technically your student anymore it didn't mean you couldn't help me anymore?" Maya replied. Patty smiled at her, nodding as though to say 'that's about the gist of it.' She could have recited her exact words, she hadn't forgotten them. _True, you won't be in class with us going forward, but in case I haven't made myself clear, as we are headed to this event you and I, it matters a great deal to me to continue guiding you as much as I can. We will work something out, you have my word._ And Patty Robinson was nothing if not a woman of her word.

"You just give me a couple of weeks, yes? I will see what we can do, you and I." As the professor's attention was drawn to the baby, who had now decided to see what would happen if he tugged on the necklace, Maya felt herself welling up, not for fear but the opposite now. Her tears would only fall on a smile.

As the food had arrived and been served around the table, Maya had gotten a call from her father. Kermit only wanted to thank her, for the song, for the video. In months to come, Maya would hear how often he could be seen watching it over, and over again, feeling the effects of the old tune echoing back on to him.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	58. Under the Cover Of

_Chapter 58_  
_Under the Cover Of_

"Are you sure you're going to be okay with this?" Lucas asked, as he pulled back from getting Elliott settled into his car seat.

"Yeah, of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" Maya asked, standing behind him. He turned to look at her and found she'd started to cry… again.

"Because that," he pointed to her face.

"I'm sorry, okay, I'm not really in control of my emotions right now," she tried to sound insulted but mostly knew he meant well, and anyway who was she kidding? "I'll be fine, I can keep it together," she sniffled, wiping her face on her sleeve. "It's just…" she tried to explain, only to burst out again.

"Okay, alright," he moved up to put his arms around her.

"I just don't understand how this happened… they won't even say and…"

"It won't last," Lucas vowed. Maya looked up at him. "I don't see how it could. It's Z and Z, they've been going longer than we have." That didn't help. Possibly it made it worse. "Deep breath, there you go," Lucas rubbed at his wife's back as she started blubbering again. "Halloween, remember? This is going to be great."

It had already been something of a complicated decision for all of them, as to what would happen with the year's 'spooky day festivities.' All their friends – save for Lucas' new school friends and their parent buddies – were back in Houston, figuring out what _they_ would do this year without the proclaimed instigators of their previous house parties. Meanwhile, Ramona, Gaby, and Ari were off to a school party, the kind that did not mesh with Lucas and Maya's first Halloween with their son, not to mention baby number two currently in progress. And none of the parent crew was looking to do much more than put the kids in cute costumes, maybe give out candy, get some sleep… For a while, the Friars on the lane were starting to contemplate doing some of that, too, maybe just stopping in to see what Maya's siblings were up to, the Hunters here and the Harts there. It would be the Harts' first Halloween in Texas…

But then a few days ago, the night when Maya had played the new lullaby lyrics to Lucas actually, Riley had called the house with a plan. The roommates, back in Houston, had been talking things over, and the consensus had been reached between them. They weren't looking to have a big, crazy party like the last couple of years. Something about not having their friends there had kind of taken the heart out of it. But now, if they weren't going to be having _that_ party, they had gotten to think how they might have a smaller party, just the housemates and their closer friends, all those ones Maya and Lucas did their best to stay in contact with – and vice versa – since the move but still didn't get to see nearly as much as they used to or wanted to. And they could bring Elliott that way, and, per Riley's insistence, they were more than welcome to spend the night at the house, so they wouldn't have to drive back to Austin afterward.

"You can spend your anniversary out here!"

It was their sixth, dating wise at least. In all the madness of baby stuff, and Kermit stuff, they had… not forgotten, exactly, but maybe resigned themselves to the thought that they would have themselves a quiet one this time around. After the invitation they had received however, they'd been left to consider their options, and they had finally decided… Yeah, that might actually be what they needed right about now. And Lucas finished class in mid-afternoon on that day, so it would be easy for them to pack up in the car and head on the road to make good time.

And then the bombshell had dropped, the night before. Zay and Nadine had broken up, over in Boston.

The strike had come via a phone call Lucas had received, from Asher back in New York. There wasn't so much to say except that apparently it had happened a few days before but he was only finding out now, as Zay had asked if he might come over and crash with him and the others for a while. Asher had also heard how they had almost broken up, over the summer, but then they'd had something of a reprieve, which might have been brought on by the arrival of Elliot Friar. It was hard to be unhappy with that little dude around, huh? But that had only worked for so long, and now…

Lucas had hated having to tell Maya, and he'd considered waiting a few more days, at least getting them past Halloween and the anniversary, but then it wouldn't have worked, not with them going to see their friends. And it wouldn't have been right either. Maya would want to check in with Nadine and Zay both, to know how they were doing, and she would hate to know she had been kept in the dark. So, he had told her. He'd just come home, and she was so excited, telling him about how she'd done a few last minute tweaks on their costumes, which only made it harder to tell her. If he'd had any choice…

To see the way her face had fallen, when he'd told her about the breakup… That was the first time she'd cried, looking very much as though her outburst had been fueled to some degree by hormones. She would have been upset either way, but now… Lucas was caught between being sad for their friends and being just a bit amused at how silly Maya was acting over the whole situation. She had been having little crying fits every one to four hours at the most, as far as he'd been made aware.

And now they were going to Houston, to spend Halloween with their friends, who had no idea she was pregnant and were not supposed to find out, not for a few more weeks. If all went as planned, the goal was to have themselves another Christmas revelation, but that was not likely to happen if the others started to wonder why she was having so deep of a reaction to their friends' break.

"I can do this," she took a breath, moving to climb in the passenger seat as she let the breath out. "This would be so much easier if I could get very drunk right now…"

Lucas chose to take it as a good sign that she didn't cry again through the whole two-hour drive out to their old house. Instead, she told him about being with her siblings earlier, before he'd come to pick her up to head to Houston.

She had spent much of the day with her Hunter siblings over at the house. The girls were home along with MJ, and they wanted nothing more than to spend time with their big sister and their little nephew. When Maya had shown up in mid-morning however, letting herself in with the aftermath of her latest bit of crying showing over her face, she had been greeted by a very puzzled looking Shawn. Setting down Elliott's car seat, she'd gone on to explain about Zay and Nadine, which only sent her spiralling once again and left her father to do what he could to console her and not come off as though he thought this was funny, especially when her voice would reach fever pitch heights.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm…" she'd stopped, and taken a breath, her face zoning into what could hopefully be taken for determination. "Halloween," she stated along, like a mantra. "Where is everyone?" She took Elliott from his seat, lifting him up into her arms before passing him over to his grandfather, who had to blink and acknowledge him even as she took off to find the answers for herself.

They were all in the living room, as she soon learned. Her mother was laid out as comfortably as she could hope to be, on one of the couches. She was due… anywhere from the next few days to a week or two from now, as far as they knew, though by looking at her they could imagine she would have been glad to give birth right this very day. Meanwhile, the twins were sitting on the floor, on their knees in front of the coffee table, where they were busy drawing up their very own pumpkins, aided with markers. Their hands were half as covered in orange and green and brown and other colors as the papers in front of them. Standing in watch, MJ was not drawing, but the nearly two-year-old boy seemed enthralled by his sisters' work. This did not stop him from being the first to look up and see…

"Ya!" he sped over to her, and she snatched him up into a hug.

"Hey, baby brother, what's happening here?" Maya gave as good as she got. A year ago, he'd still been a babe in arms, when Maya and Lucas had been struggling to keep their secret from Katy and Shawn and now… It was hard to decide if she was stunned for how much he'd grown or for the way he was actually still so small. And then she would think about Elliott, a year from now, when his little brother or sister would be about the size he was now, while he… _Halloween, Halloween, keep it together._ Emotions were really going to be her minefield today, weren't they?

Her sisters had been very proud to show her their drawings, and as chaotic as the four-year-olds' interpretations could be, on the whole they were really very expressive. Now that Maya was here though, they were ready to abandon their markers and finally get their costumes on. If it had been up to them, they would have been wearing them day to night, every day, since they'd gotten them tried on for the first time. Today was the day though, which meant they were well within their rights. Shawn had taken on the task of getting them cleaned up post-drawing and Halloween ready.

"I believe this belongs to you," he passed Elliott back over to her.

"Looks familiar, yeah," Maya smiled as the boy clung to her the moment she had him. While Shawn grabbed MJ and led the girls upstairs, Maya went and sat near her mother, where Katy could get a look of her grandson. "How are you feeling?" Maya asked her.

"Like I'm this close to exploding and that might not be the worst thing?" Katy hummed, with a sweeping gesture around her belly which made her look like a witch stirring at her cauldron. "Used to be that all we wanted was for him to stay in there, but now he's good and cooked, so… whenever he's ready…" she sighed. "How about you?" she turned to her daughter now, chuckling like she was just remembering the fact that she and her daughter were both pregnant at the same time… again.

"I'm alright," Maya nodded.

"You want to tell that to your face?" Katy reached out, and Maya could only wonder what she must have looked like.

"It's nothing to do with me, but I shouldn't say it or I'll get started again. Ask Dad when he gets back, okay?"

"As long as you say it's not you or the b-a-b-y," she spelled out, in case the girls ended up in earshot. Maya promised her that, on that front, everything was about where they could be expected to be, being all of eleven weeks along.

Then again, it was impossible not to notice how much faster she was starting to show this time around. Eleven weeks with Elliott, no one could really know unless she spelled it out for them, but now she was definitely more than 'a little round' all of a sudden. To some, she might have been able to say this was from having Elliott, but others, those closest to her… All it would take would be one piece of clothing betraying her and the secret would be out. Her Hunter siblings would likely not notice a thing, but then the Harts… If this kept up, waiting until Christmas would be impossible.

Case and point, she had gone to see her Hart siblings after leaving the Hunters, where she was greeted at the door by Eliza. The eight-year-old had hugged her at once, and as she'd pulled away, Maya could just see a look on her face, like she'd felt something strange. All she could do was work quick to distract her, to stop her mind from going much further down that road. As ever, this had been facilitated with the presence of baby number one. Now that Elliott was bigger, steadier, they were getting to the point where Maya and Lucas might trust the girl to pick up her nephew and carry him around, which she'd done, taking him over to where young Uncle Wyatt was already in costume and ready to go trick or treating.

"Maya!" Cara's voice just barely preceded the sound of many feet hurrying down the stairs, and when she'd looked up, Maya discovered these belonged to her sister and their brother, as Sam was hot on her heels, as though trying to either get ahead of her or maybe just stopping her from doing or saying something. That proved to be correct, as they'd barely cleared the last steps before Sam tried to put his hand over her mouth but was not fast enough to do it before Cara dodged out of the way, laughing. "Sammy got a girlfriend, Sammy got a girlfriend!" she shouted it out as quick as she could, laughing harder now that she'd succeeded not only in sharing the news but in making her brother go all red in the face. As sympathetic as she could be for him, Maya couldn't help but bite back a chuckle at this.

"Does he now?" she asked, turning a smile to her brother, who appeared to be caught between wanting to get his revenge over his little sister and trying not to look so completely embarrassed in front of his older sister. There was no way out. "Samuel?" Maya inquired.

"She's _not_ my…" he started to tell her, even as Cara was standing next to him, making kissy noises and bumping her puppet hands against one another.

"Really…" Maya's grin grew, while Sam's face deepened to a new shade.

"I saw them," Cara whispered. "Sammy and Dora, sitting in the yard, k-i-s-s-i-…"

"Dead!" Sam proclaimed, and Cara bolted off, resuming the chase and filling the house with giggles.

After Cara's neck had been 'saved' by Abigail telling her and Sam to quit running around, Maya had been able to get to work, transforming her brothers and sisters for their trick or treating round. After Wyatt's makeup had scared Elliott and made him cry, the baby had been left to his grandfather for comfort. It had very nearly started Maya crying again – for reasons other than her friends' breakup for once – when she'd heard him singing the words to the lullaby for Elliott while she was painting Eliza's face in the kitchen… especially as she could tell it was working.

The true test to her resolve had come with Sam's turn in her chair. She had waited until he was stuck there, unable to leave, before casually inquiring whether Cara had spoken truly. He'd stood nearby the whole time Maya had been doing _her_ makeup, like he wanted to make sure she wouldn't say more than she already had, but now it was just the two of them.

"Well?" she asked, quietly. Sam looked ready to bolt, but then what would that get him.

"Yes," he finally replied, even quieter than her. Maya smiled.

"The girlfriend part or the kissing?" Her brother gulped.

"Both, I guess." Here she was, trying to have a playful moment with her brother, and all of a sudden, something about the promise of new love – or whatever it might be called when the couple in question was thirteen and fourteen years old – coupled with the inescapable awareness of a love broken up in Boston, had caused her to feel a tingling in her eyes, and then a rise of emotion she could not stuff back down, couldn't snuff out…

"I'm so happy for you, Sammy," she told him, and her trembling voice was paired with a trembling hand, forcing her to stop while she cried.

"Maya? Are you okay?" Sam blinked. A moment later, there was his hand on her shoulder, and her hand had gone to grasp on to it, contact.

"I'm fine, I'm sorry, I just… friends of mine are going through a rough patch and I'm really, I… It's so sad… I can't stop crying about it, but it'll pass, really, everything's fine." Now her little brother was hugging her, standing while she sat there, and Maya almost felt bad for prodding him over Dora now. And then he'd said…

"Is it the baby that's making you cry like that?"

"What?" she'd sniffed, not even sure that she'd heard…

"Not Elliott, I mean the one in your belly." Maya looked up at him. "I'm right, aren't I?" Sam asked, smiling.

"You're the genius here," she laughed, and took a breath. He never stopped amazing her, did he? She had no idea exactly how long he'd known, but he'd said it in this one moment, and he'd helped her stop crying because of it. "And… yeah… it probably is. You can't tell the others, okay?" He held out his pinky to her, and that was that.

Maybe for that confidence… and maybe because she wanted to see his reaction when he'd hear it from them… Maya had not yet told Lucas about his cousin and her brother's budding romance, or the part where Dora had kissed Sam and he'd kissed her back. She'd left that whole part of the story out, as she told him the rest over the drive. She finished with the rest, just as they were arriving at the house in Houston.

"You're going to have to stop doing that if you don't want them to know," Lucas pointed out with a smile.

"Stop doing what?" Maya asked. He nodded down, and she looked to discover she had her hand over her small-but-not-that-small start of a belly. She hadn't even done it consciously, it was just there, and she knew it was there, and her hand wanted to go… "Oh, right," she sighed. Lucas reached over now, placing his hand over hers. "Did I hear you talking at me this morning?"

"Well, I had to introduce myself sooner or later, get the conversation going," he pointed out, which made her laugh.

"The Bee can't hear you," she reminded him.

"Small detail… small bee," he shrugged. "Hey, hey, keep it together," he reached over to nudge some new tears away.

"You're the one who made me do it this time," she 'accused,' taking a breath.

Maya had walked toward the house with Elliott out of his seat and in her arms, which was as good of a way as any to keep people from possibly noticing what was happening under her jacket and shirt. This could only work so long, as any one of the boy's many 'aunts' and 'uncles' would come and snatch him away from her the first chance they got, but by then the initial introduction would have been made.

"Yeah, so, don't go in the kitchen," Lucas came to find Maya, as she'd taken Elliott back from Sophie and Chiara in order to go up and change the both of them into their costumes.

"Why?" Maya asked.

"I don't know how your stomach's doing, but there's some cakes back there…"

"I like cake, I _love_…"

"They're shaped like severed arms and legs." She paused.

"Oh…" she gave him a look like 'that bad?'

"Very realistic," Lucas nodded.

"Right… On a normal year, that would have been a highlight," she informed Elliott, who enjoyed the 'ride' up the stairs by reaching for the pictures on the walls as they went.

When the relaxed friends-only party had been proposed, they had jumped on the idea. Understandably, Halloween had always been very important to them for a long time, for a number of reasons. Aside from loving the day on its own, separately, it had been a key component in their growing friendship. And then, of course, on October 31st six years ago now, they'd had that moment, at the haunted house, an almost kiss which led to a proper kiss and the start of their relationship the following morning. Five years after that, to the day, in this very house, they had discovered that they were having a baby, and it had changed so much of their lives. Now one more year had passed, and they were back, with their baby boy along for the spooks, and their second child secretly growing inside Maya's belly. Halloween was and would continue to be so important to them, so now to start sharing in the tradition with their son…

"Need me to do anything?" Lucas asked, as they set up in what had once been their room almost by reflex.

"You just start getting changed, I've got this," Maya assured him.

It had taken them some time to figure out what they do as far as costumes. They had done couples at times, or group costumes, other times their own thing… But now they had to come up with something for him and her and the baby, and they wanted to get it Just Right. Maya had been exploring options for weeks already, and they had gone through more of those than they could count. A lot of those options had been eliminated on small technicalities. They didn't want to dress as anything that would transform them so much that Elliott wouldn't recognize them anymore, and he might start to cry. They wanted the baby's costume to fit with their costumes, but it couldn't be anything that might be harmful either.

And now, Maya's costume couldn't be anything that would somehow expose her secret bump. Up until a couple weeks ago, they'd been planning to go as Green Arrow and Black Canary. Maya had gotten a sling and started to modify it, to turn it into what would look like a quiver, which Lucas could wear on his back, with Elliott poking out the top with a sort of foam arrowhead hat. But then time had happened, and so had that speedy little start of a belly, promising to be very noticeable in that Black Canary costume. So, it was back to the drawing board, with little time for a turnaround.

"Look at you now," Maya felt that lurch in her heart that was like an alarm, signalling she was teetering on the edge of tears. It was really getting to be a bit ridiculous, how easily her brain could go from 'here's my baby boy, in his first Halloween costume' to 'I can't wait to show our friends' to 'two of those friends who have been together for seven years just broke up and they're so far away' and then poof, waterworks. Lucas had just finished getting dressed, and he'd come back to have a look.

"If it helps, _I_ might cry, too," he told Maya, which made her laugh. "Go on, I've got him." Lucas picked Elliott up into his arms, the boy looking like he might start to fuss until he got a look at him. "I think he thinks I'm Pappy Joe like this," he turned to Maya, in the midst of getting undressed. It was a wonder no one had accidentally come in and seen, with the way their attempts to hide either pregnancy had usually ended up with loads of people finding out.

"What do you think? Covert enough?" Maya asked, letting the light blue dress fall into place. When it caught the light, it sparkled.

"I don't see it," Lucas nodded.

"What if I do this?" she raised her arms over her head, turned this way and that…

"Nothing but a fairy…" he promised, making her smile as she moved to finish getting ready. Soon, the trio, the covert quartet, would make its way down the stairs, the Blue Fairy leading the way ahead of Geppetto and his real boy Pinocchio, to join the party.

One year ago, to the day, their lives had changed, right here. They could not have foreseen just how true this would be, and continue to be, until they would end up here again, on another Halloween, newly pregnant once again. Next year… next year it would be the four of them, and oh how much more could their lives change between now and then?

_TO BE CONTINUED_

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_See you next week! - mooners_


	59. Time Goes Forth

**_A/N: Hey guys!_**_ Starting next week, the upload day will go from Tuesdays to Wednesdays._

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_Chapter 59_  
_Time Goes Forth_

A year ago on this date, they had been adjusting to the revelation that they were about to become parents on the very same day where they celebrated their fifth dating anniversary. Maya had been dealt her first hand by the morning sickness fairy, but for all that neither she nor Lucas was about to miss whatever he'd had planned for the day.

"You wore the green dress…" Lucas recalled, as he looked to his wife. Maya laughed.

"The very one. I still remember the look on your face."

"It's a really good dress," he pointed out, and she giggled, not for comment so much as for how his fingers tickled, trailing about her belly button.

This year's anniversary was in some parts very similar and in others vastly different from the last. This year the date was almost redundant, but then November 1st had been part of their lives long enough that they couldn't just stop noting its passage on account of the rings on their fingers. So, after their relaxed Halloween party had come to an end, they had left their former house and made their way to the hotel where Lucas had reserved them a room for the night.

And Elliott had been left to his aunts and uncles back at the house.

Lucas had experienced one night away from their son already, on the night before the wedding, but this would be the first for Maya. Lucas didn't need to wonder if she would have difficulties with this, because of course she would. Even when they had gotten married, the last time they had been in a hotel, Elliott had been in another room one floor below and the distance was hard to handle, so now be in a whole other location…

"It's okay. He'll be fine with them," Maya had told him, possibly trying to convince herself more than him. "We have to do it sooner or later, right? This is as good of a reason as any."

So far, they were doing alright. They had changed out of their costumes, drove to the hotel after spending a good ten minutes looking at their sleeping puppet boy, and checked in. Maya was barely awake on her feet by then, so they'd just changed and gone to bed, waking to the morning of the first of November and their sixth anniversary… and to Maya's morning run to the bathroom.

"Good thing we didn't spend the night over there, right?" Lucas had frowned, as he came around to help her afterward.

He'd had breakfast sent up to the room and, after they'd managed to eat, Lucas had incited his dear wife to come and lie down again. The best thing he could give her right about now was the promise of relaxation. She sat up on the comfy hotel bed, breathing out, while he sat at her side at first, turned toward her, head propped up in one hand as the other had picked up one of hers, kissed its fingers.

"Better?" he'd asked.

"Getting there," she'd nodded, and for a while they'd stayed this way. Then, temptation had been too strong for him, as he nudged the edge of her shirt up so he might reveal her tiny belly. It made her smile, thinking of all those times she'd found him 'in conference' with their unborn son for all those months he'd been growing there. Now, it was their Bee in there, and he was just as tenderly enamored with the little thing as he'd been with their Sprout, and she was all too happy to oblige. As they had let the minutes drag on in peace, reminiscing over Halloween with their friends, Lucas had soon ended up setting his head at her shoulder, while his fingers dragged along over the bump.

"This year went by so fast, didn't it?" he hummed, smirking when she'd startle for having been tickled.

"Eventful, very eventful," she agreed. "You know there's no way we'll be able to hide this until Christmas, right? Eight weeks from now, the way I'm going… They'll look at me like 'yeah, of course you are, what did you think we'd say that was, a really bad bee sting?'" she intoned, only to catch herself at 'bee' and laugh.

"Thanksgiving then?" Lucas suggested.

"That might be doable, so long as we don't really see each other until then. For once it'll be a good thing we're not all in the same city, huh?" Maya breathed, letting her own fingers trace through his hair. "Damn it…" she mumbled after a moment, and when her hand left his head, Lucas looked up to find she was pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezing shut, like she was trying to keep from crying.

"Hey, hey," he stretched up to cup the side of her face, laying his forehead to hers. "It's okay, I told you. They'll get through this. Imagine when you tell them about this baby, it'll make them so happy…"

"Happy enough to get back together?" she sniffled, face scrunching. She hated how easily she broke over this, he knew, but there was nothing to be done for it.

"Maybe…" he replied in all honesty. "Maybe not." Her whimper sounded like 'you're supposed to be helping here, Huckleberry?' He kissed her, lightly, and she kissed him back, taking strength from the fact that he was here, with her, that they were okay, better than okay. When he pulled back to look at her, there was a tentative smile on her face.

"What are we doing today?" she asked, and he smiled back, kissing her again.

"Not a whole lot," he informed her.

"I like the sound of that…" she hummed. "Where's my phone?"

"I already checked with the others, Elliott's fine," Lucas promised, even as he went and got it for her.

"I know he is, that's not why," Maya promised. "I just want to look at the pictures from last night." They had gotten through the whole thing without much in the way of incidents, like Maya crying way too much, or getting nauseated over one thing or another – especially the cakes – or either of them saying or doing anything that might reveal the thing they were working so hard to keep hidden. Maya _had_ cried, once, but it had happened in such a way that Lucas had been able to cover for her and, as far as they were aware, their friends were none the wiser. As for the cakes, well, once they were sliced they were just cake, and they were delicious.

"You're sending them all to me, yeah?" Lucas asked as he sat at her side, looking at the screen while she swiped through them.

"You know I am," she nodded. "Have to grab a few for the grandparents, too. Like this one…" she stopped swiping, turning a smile to Lucas. They had taken several where it would be him and her and Elliott, but the one she'd singled out here… Lucas stood behind Maya, and she had Elliott in her arms, facing out, while he had his arms around her, seemingly creating a seat for the little Pinocchio boy if not for how his hands were actually plastered one over the other and over Maya's hidden bump. It was a signal to those in the know, that this was a picture of the four of them, not three, on this day of spooks.

"Check this out now," Lucas took his own phone and pulled up a picture from November 1st, six years before, and held it next to hers. She laughed.

"It's like we're completely different people," she declared, looking at the two of them in the old picture. She was fifteen, he was sixteen…Had they been older, those six years might not have shown so distinctly, but because they had been teenagers at the time, the difference between 15-16 and 21-22 was just staggering, especially with a baby thrown in the mix… two babies…

"I think if you'd told that me he'd be married with a kid and another on the way in a few years, he'd have passed out," Lucas smirked.

"Yeah?" Maya laughed. "Didn't take him long to come around to that, did it?" She looked over at him, catching what could only be described as his 'I'm about to lay on the cheese' look. "Go on, say it," she grinned.

Before he could reply, the phone in Maya's hand started to ring, startling them both. Then they saw who was calling, and they knew what was coming.

"Dad?" Maya answered, as Lucas rose from the bed and went to grab their change of clothes from the small suitcase they'd brought along.

"Hey, I'm really sorry to interrupt, I know you guys are having your anniversary out there…" Shawn replied.

"She started, didn't she?" Maya asked, moving to get up, too.

"Right around sunrise, yeah. Cory and Topanga are on their way, they'll take the girls and MJ and I'll leave with Katy. She doesn't want to leave yet, doesn't believe it's for real because she had false starts with all the others and she hasn't this time. I've been clocking it, if it's not real…"

"If that's what she feels she has to do," Maya smiled, recalling the stories of her mother's false start with her. "We're checking out here, picking up Elliott, and then we're on our way to meet you there."

"Again, I'm so…"

"Dad, please, who wouldn't want a baby brother as an anniversary present. Keep me posted, okay? Love you."

"Love you, too, kid."

"Oh, and hug mom for me."

They got dressed and picked up after themselves, which did not take long for what little use they had gotten of the room or their belongings.

"Wait, wait," Lucas went over to the minibar and grabbed a couple of things, for the trip back. Maya received these like a kid at Halloween, landing on the doorstep of a very generous candy giver.

"You know how to make your wife happy," she teased.

"I have many ways," he smirked, stopping to kiss her before they left the room.

"So, so many jokes," Maya whispered.

Their arrival back at the house had been taken with some surprise, as they hadn't been expected until later in the afternoon. When they revealed that Katy was in labor and they had to get back to Austin, the response was swift and unanimous. They were packing into their own car and they were coming along.

"Did your mom have false labor when you were coming? Did she say?" Maya wondered, as Lucas drove the two of them and Elliott back from Houston. The question had never come up, not in their own first pregnancy, but now with what her father had mentioned, she had to wonder.

"Six times," Lucas nodded.

"Wait, for real?" Maya blinked.

"Depends who you ask," he clarified. "According to my dad, she was so nervous about the idea of labor and delivery that by the end of it, any time she felt something and she wasn't sure what it was, she wanted to go to the hospital, and if he didn't take her, well she would find another way, so he'd just take her."

"Oh, no," Maya laughed.

"One time, it really looked like the real thing, but it wasn't. By the time it was really happening, the nurse apparently looked like she was going to turn them away, but then my mom's water broke right there in front of her, so… yeah…"

"I am so happy that she's my mother-in-law now," Maya grinned, imagining the young Melinda Friar facing off against the nurse with a belly full of Huckleberry.

"What about you?"

"Just the one time," Maya replied. "Except it was so close to the real thing, sometimes it's hard to say if it counts."

"What happened?" Lucas asked, unsure he followed.

"Well, it was early in the morning, and my mom started to feel what she figured was labor. My father was all over the place, freaking out, like he thought I'd just pop right out and fall on the floor or something. My mom says he would walk with her like he was waiting to jump and catch me at any second. She was… pretty calm, all things considered. She decided to take the subway to the hospital. When they got there, they checked her out, but it hadn't really started, so they sent her home. She and my father had lunch and then they got back on the subway. She started to feel something, but at first she thought it was the hospital food that was messing with her. Then they reached their stop right when the first contraction hit, and that was a real one, she got the difference that time," Maya laughed, remembering when her mother had told her the story.

"She didn't give birth on the subway, did she?" Lucas had to ask.

"No," Maya assured him. "But they stayed on, couldn't exactly leave, so they were just getting further and further away from the hospital. Finally, someone called 911, and paramedics met them a couple stations ahead, and then they were off. Technically, I was born in the ambulance bay."

"Very… dynamic."

"She said it was dramatically fitting for someone like her," Maya proudly beamed.

"And you," Lucas added, which made her laugh.

As they got closer to the hospital in Austin, the question of their secret came up again. One key component of their ability to keep this secret was that the people who knew and those who didn't generally did not mix. There were her siblings, sure, but that was different. Maya and Lucas had told their parents that their friends didn't know about the new baby yet, and that they did not intend to tell them for a few more weeks, but accidents happened so easily…

"We do our best not to say anything, but if it comes out…" Lucas suggested, which took them both back to the previous year. They'd had a similar rule then, too.

"Alright, come on, let's go see your uncle be born," Maya told Elliott as she pulled him from his car seat. He'd slept the whole way, and he woke with enough crankiness to ensure he wouldn't be leaving her arms anytime soon. "Come on, you're not actually going to see it," she promised, kissing the top of his head. "You don't think he'd get flashbacks or anything?" she turned to Lucas as he came around with their 'Everything Elliott' bag slung over his shoulder.

"Luckily for all of us, we never have to find out. How's the emotion meter going?"

"Well, between having Elliott, and being around to see Stormy, and Simone, and Zoey, and now Unnamed Hunter Number Four, and thinking about Unnamed Friar Number Two, there is a lot of… baby feeling in the air, and that is just bound to mess with anyone that's not… _with Bee_. So you get the picture. I'm just going to hold on to Mister Fuss Pants here, hopefully we can work this out together, yeah?" Maya tipped her head to look at the baby's face. He turned those eyes up at her, a good fixed blue, and she stroked his cheek with her finger, letting her smile work at reassuring him until he was able to settle again. "Alright, let's go see what's up in there."

The group out of Houston had caught up with them as they were making their way into the elevator, and so they stepped out and went in search of Katy and Shawn and the others together. They were spotted by Cory Matthews, who called to them, walking over with Nellie perched to his hip, a necessity according to him, as she wouldn't stop running off in search of her parents. Meanwhile, Gracie was sitting next to Topanga in the waiting room, with little brother MJ sitting in her lap, locked in place with her arms as though he was a big stuffed bear that moved.

"Hey, you just missed them," Cory told Maya as his eyes swept over the group containing Lucas, Riley, and the rest of the Houston House. "Things were taking a turn by the time we got here, and they ended up taking her for a C-section," he revealed.

The news hit like a ton of bricks, and if not for the moving weight of Elliott in her arms, Maya didn't know that she would have collected her scattered mind together as she'd willed herself to do now. The instinct was there for her to panic, to assume the worst. She couldn't do that… she couldn't… Standing at her side, Lucas hadn't been left unaffected, maybe finding for the first time just how much Maya's parents had gotten to feel like parents to him, too. This, coupled with being a father himself, who had read plenty about what this would mean for Katy and the baby, left him halfway between rattled and concerned for how Maya would take this.

"Okay…" she replied to Mr. Matthews, her voice quiet at first. "Right. Right, I… Dad's with her, yeah?" Cory nodded. "Good…"

"I want Mommy," Nellie informed her big sister now, as she attempted to extricate herself from Uncle Cory's arms.

"Hey, hey, Sunny," Maya caught her hand up in hers so she'd look at her. "Mommy's having the baby now, okay? We have to be patient and wait here until it's done. Do you remember when I had him?" she nodded down to Elliott. It was no use asking if she remembered MJ's birth, when the twins had been all of two. On the flipside, MJ wouldn't remember this day, so that was something, yeah?

"It was… long time," Nellie nodded.

"Exactly. Babies take a long time. Come on, let's go sit and you can tell me how trick or treating went last night. Did you get a lot of candy?"

It was all they could do, just sit and wait. And listening to her sisters talk about going out with Shawn and Cory, while Topanga had remained with Katy and MJ – just in case – was all _she_ could do, not to head down some spiral where, already worried at the thought of losing Kermit, she was now forced to consider the possibility that something might go wrong and she might also lose this new brother she'd already nearly lost once… and then her mother… If that happened, she… No. No, not today. It was November 1st, and that was a good day, a great day. Miracles happened on this day.

After a little over an hour that felt like a little over an eternity, Gracie's call of 'Daddy!' had sent several heads turning up and around until they could see Shawn heading their way. Lucas held out his arms to receive Elliott before Maya could even think to hand him over. After she'd done so, she stood and approached her father, no doubt wearing every one of her concerns over her face. Before he'd even said a word, Shawn had just given his daughter a quick nod. _All clear._

"Your mom's in recovery, everything looks good so far."

"And the baby?" Maya asked, giving very little care to whether or not anyone saw her cry in that moment. Shawn held out his phone to her with a tired smile.

"This is all I could bring you for now," he explained as she looked at the picture. "They're looking after him, he looks good, but with everything… I'm going to go back in a minute to be with him, that's where your mom will want me to be, so as soon as they'll let you be with her…"

"I'll be there," Maya promised. "He looks so much like MJ did," she sniffled and smiled, looking at the picture of the baby… her brother… "Did you pick a name yet?" All she'd known so far was that her parents had been considering plenty of possibilities but never landed on a definitive choice. By the end, it was very much a case of 'we'll know it when we see him.'

"Maybe," Shawn told her. "We have one in mind, but your mother wanted to make sure it would be alright with you, in case…" He stopped himself here, even though the others were not within earshot enough to have heard. Maya knew what he meant though, and she mouthed the name. Shawn nodded. She didn't even have to think about it. In her mind, it felt at once like this was the reason, right here. This was the reason it hadn't felt like the right choice for her in the end, the reason she'd kept looking and landed on Elliott. The name had belonged to someone else. She looked at the picture on the phone and… yeah… that was him alright.

"More than alright," she moved forward to hug her father. The way he held her, she could feel exactly how scared he'd been back there, as he'd gone and stood by while they cut into his wife to pull their son into the world. But he was here now, they were both going to pull through, they had to. When Shawn told her and the others in the waiting room the good news, there were many more good tears being spilled, all for the birth of Alexander George Hunter.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	60. The New Ways How

_Chapter 60_  
_The New Ways How_

"I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time," Patty Robinson's voice grew fainter and then normal again as Maya squeezed the phone between her ear and her shoulder.

"You're not," Maya assured her, though a case could be made that she mostly had busy times these days, so what might have been considered a 'bad time' before now had to be endured, seeing as there were very few unoccupied moments to be found. Basically it was 'you might as well go for it now, because there won't be any better moment than this. "Oh, but my mother would like to say hello, to thank you for the flowers and the gift, hold on," she told the professor, as she finished fastening the clean diaper on to her one-week-old little brother. Finally lifting him into her arms and walking from the nursery and toward her parents' room, where her mother was sitting on her bed like she'd just woken from a nap. "Professor Robinson is calling, did you want to…" Maya whispered. Katy nodded, holding out her hand, and Maya brought her the phone before stepping out in the hall with the baby.

Alex seemed to like when whoever carried him would just be walking around, so that was what Maya did, walking the length of the hallway, back and forth, looking into his little newborn face and smiling. It was still hard not to look at him and think how close he'd come to not existing, which after so few days of knowing him was already so horrible of an idea. Their mother could have lost him, all those months ago, and they would never have gotten to hold him, and watch him evolve…

"Hey, baby brother, falling asleep on me, aren't you?" Maya smiled as he gave a powerful yawn, eyes blinking… His doctor was concerned about his eyes. Maya didn't know much, only what her parents knew, from when they'd taken him home from the hospital. They would know more eventually, and maybe it would turn out to be nothing major, but until then all they had was this uncertainty, and worries. He could see, at least it felt like he did, but then maybe the problem meant that he wouldn't stay that way. Maya could tell how much this weighed on her parents, every day when she'd come over, and she wished she could do more to make those concerns disappear, but all she could really do was what she did now, being there with them. Whatever would happen next, they would all deal with it together, as a family.

When her mother was done with the phone, Maya had gone in to retrieve it and left Alex with her. Climbing down the stairs, she found her father looking over MJ, playing with his blocks, and all the while looking after Elliott, in his seat next to him. The twins were at pre-school, which was just as well. There was some difficulty in making them understand why Katy couldn't do some things even though she didn't have the big belly anymore and their brother was clearly outside of it now. They responded to it in their own ways, of course. Nellie would throw a fit, while Gracie would just look up at Katy with big confused eyes. MJ overall was the only one who seemed unaffected by everything. They could find ways to compromise with him and he'd be none the wiser.

"Sorry about the delay, had to find somewhere quiet," Maya told the professor.

"Not to worry, I can imagine there is a lot to deal with at the moment," Patty replied, and Maya could just about picture her sympathetic smile in her head.

"A lot, yes," she agreed. _Husband, son, little Bee… Dad's health… Mom's recovery… So many siblings caught in the middle… Alex… Lucas' degree… and mine…_

"Now, I've been looking over some things, regarding what we talked about a couple of weeks ago," Patty told her, and Maya sat up. She'd stepped out into the yard, sitting on a lawn chair after brushing away a few leaves. She had expected this to be the reason for the professor's call. "I am starting work on a new project, at the start of the winter semester, and I would need an assistant, for research. If you would find yourself up to the task, you could do just about all of it from your home. Some materials I would be able to send to you by courier, and we would meet to discuss once a week, for which I would be more than willing to drive into Austin rather than have you come to me. How does that sound?"

Maya was just a bit stunned. How did it sound? It sounded kind of perfect, actually. The thought of it alone was enough to make her feel like something in her was waking up, something she'd allowed to fall dormant in the past few months. It was the part of her that had learned to love the work she did for school, which had been nurtured and made to thrive since she'd come to Texas, especially when Patty Robinson had become a part of it. She was already curious to know what this project was and what she'd be researching.

"It sounds like I can't wait to start," Maya laughed, which made the professor laugh along.

"Excellent, excellent. Oh, now, do you remember, I introduced you to Professor Patil, at the museum?" Patty asked. Maya recalled the woman's face at once.

"Yes, I do."

"Good, yes, now, I have been meaning to work with her for some time now, and so she will also be involved on the project. She is local, so she may be of some assistance to you in tracking down some elements of this research. I will send you her information, and now that you are on board, I will be letting her know how to reach you, if that's alright?"

"Sure, yes, that'd be great. The one thing, I… It's just, with mother… and my father, a-and everything that…"

"As I said, we will be starting in earnest only in January, which will give you the next two months to, I hope, find some ease will be returned to you and yours." Maya could only think that she hoped for the same. "I will send you more information, you look it over and whatever questions you have, I will answer."

"Thank you, Professor," Maya smiled. The woman made a noise she recognized as her wanting to be called Patty. "If I'm going to be working for you, I am going to call you Professor," Maya chuckled.

"Alright, I suppose," she replied, laughter in her voice.

After they hung up, Maya sat back in the lawn chair, taking some good deep breaths of autumn air. Sometimes it truly felt like Patty Robinson could not be real, that she was an angel who had floated down into her life two years ago… Maya had heard every word she'd said, and underneath them she simply knew there were more words, still, and primarily they were that this project of hers had not existed up until a couple of weeks ago. _I have been meaning to work with her for some time now._ That had been the thing that clinched it for her. In one fell swoop, Professor Robinson had supplied Maya with work, paid work, and all the while she was maintaining some flow of learning, through herself and through this woman who would get to know her, for however long the project lasted, well before the two of them became professor and student whenever Maya would at last return to university and finish her degree. And the cherry on top was this chance to accomplish her long-standing goal of working with Meera Patil, her former pupil. Patty might as well have dropped the mic for having crafted this opportunity for herself, and Meera Patil, and Maya together.

When she'd gone back inside to check on Elliott, Maya told Shawn about the call, and the project. He received this information with much the same assessment as she'd given.

"That woman is unreal," he blinked.

"She's hugged me several times, she's definitely real," Maya laughed. And for no other reason maybe than that he'd heard her, Elliott laughed, too, which earned him some good mom cuddles. That little sound had started coming from him now, over the past couple of weeks, and when they'd first heard it, Maya and Lucas had both been as stunned and enamored as they'd been convinced that he'd started picking it up from his many hours of being looked after by Pappy Joe when he'd be watching his show. "Yeah, I _am_ pretty funny sometimes, aren't I?" Maya nodded to her son, who mostly responded by reaching up his hand and touching her face.

Maya had gone up and told her mother about the call, Katy had much the same reaction, with an added promise that, in a few weeks' time, once she was better recovered from the delivery and the c-section, she wanted to have Professor Robinson over for dinner.

"I'll bring Pappy Joe, too, then you get to see a real show," Maya smirked.

In the last week, she'd been spending her mornings with her mother and the baby, before heading to spend the afternoon with her father. She wasn't overdoing it, always mindful of the start of a person presently counting on her to get to come into the world by the time May rolled around. When she'd mentioned to her grandmother, one afternoon, how pretty soon the month would mean birthdays for everyone but her, Elizabeth Hart had pointed out she _would_ have her own day in that month. Maya had just had to laugh. Somehow, she would have had two kids, born of two separate pregnancies, before having ever celebrated a single Mothers' Day.

After those mornings and afternoons, the evenings belonged to home, and Lucas and Pappy Joe. When Lucas' grandfather heard about Patty's project, he had been so clearly touched by this thing she was doing for Maya (even he could figure out this was very much _for_ her and not simply _with_ her) and he'd only managed to rein in the smitten look on his face after it had surfaced and been witnessed by his grandson's wife.

"Now I will be happy to look after the little guy while you're working," he nodded now, to distract from the rest.

"That is… very kind of you," Maya grinned. Pappy Joe nodded, turning to Elliott in his bassinet and lifting him up into his arms.

"Look at the time, wait until you hear what they're up to next," he carried the baby into the living room, even as Lucas arrived back from university. He stopped briefly to greet his grandfather, and say hello to his son, before joining Maya in the kitchen.

"Hey," he smiled, leaning in to kiss her as she stretched up from her chair to do the same. "Wow, is that a cake?" he asked, looking at the image on the laptop in front of her.

"It is, yeah. I've been thinking about the one I did, for when everyone was coming over from New York," she explained. "I think I'd like to start and do some more. If I get good enough, I could start making them for people, like a sort of… home bakery thing."

"You never met a new medium you couldn't bend to your will," Lucas replied with confidence, which made her laugh. Of course he would say as much. "Where did this come from?" he asked, and this did not surprise her either, that he would see the roots existed underneath.

She told him about the professor's call, and the project. All day, since the call, she hadn't been able to stop thinking about it, and by the time she was driving home with Elliott, after her afternoon with Kermit, her brain had started spinning around the idea of cakes. It was as though the promise of this project, and the feeling it had inspired in her, had inspired so much more. She could manifest this other project for herself, on top of the research. Months ago, she'd had other plans, yes, but now that she was living in this reality of her new life… this was the thing that felt most real to her, the thing she needed to pursue. She could hone her skills, and in time… who knew?

"I like this plan a lot," Lucas declared.

"Because there will be cake?" Maya gave him a look.

"Because it already makes you excited, I can see it."

"And the cake?"

"And the cake."

"How did it go today, with your professors?" Maya asked, smiling, as she closed the laptop.

"Good, I guess," he nodded. "I tried not to go into too much detail, but I did end up telling three of them about the baby. They wanted to know why I was going to be leaving when I just got there, and the switch over from Houston…"

It wasn't as though he'd been obligated to tell any of them anything. If he'd had them again in the coming semesters, or if he would have been meant to end up in their classes, they might have noticed he wasn't there anymore, might not… But he'd been at this university for all of two months and, in that time, they had been good to him, helping him bridge some gaps brought on by the transfer, and even if they hadn't been, it was just in his nature to show that small bit of courtesy, telling them that he was stepping away from this program, this degree, in favor of another. This would be his only semester with them.

Neither of them had expected for it to fall into place as fast as it did. Just a few weeks ago, the decision had been made, and he'd met with the advisor. And then he'd went ahead and said go, he'd put in for the school of business, so he might learn and join his father. _Friar & Son_. Now he had gotten to sit with someone and talk, an interview, and it wasn't exactly a total confirmation that he was in for winter, but everything he'd seen and heard suggested he was on the right track. He would have to know very soon, before the holiday break, if he was expected to register, get all that he needed…

Whether or not he got in, it didn't change the fact that he wasn't going to be continuing on in his current program. If for some reason he didn't get in for winter, then… he'd just have to try for the fall. He would be out of school for a semester, but that'd be alright, more than alright. He'd get to be home, with Maya, help her with Elliott, through the last months of her pregnancy. He'd be there with her when the baby came… He didn't _wish_ not to get in school in the winter, but he wouldn't have been mad at it if that happened. He could join Maya on her cake ventures… eat the scraps…

He'd made that decision after the interview, which was why he'd gone on that round, telling his professors. It was the easiest way to show his commitment to the plan.

"Speaking of telling, I think Cara is starting to suspect," Maya revealed, looking down at herself.

"Yeah?" Lucas smiled, sitting forward in that way that just said 'I have been waiting to just sit here and talk about anything with you all day.'

"I was changing Elliott's diaper, some… splashing was involved," Maya's face scrunched up, making Lucas laugh. Neither one of them had been spared _that_ surprise over the last five months. "I did my best to clean up, but then the shirt, and… yeah. Moral of the story: I need to start packing myself a change of clothes, too."

"How much are you hoping for a girl right now?" Lucas teased. Maya sighed dramatically, laughed.

"No comment."

"So Cara didn't actually say anything to you," Lucas asked, back on topic.

"No, but you know her, she's sneaky. She should be a spy."

"No secrets would be safe."

"Sam can testify to that," Maya hummed, trying not to laugh. When Lucas gave a confused look, she realized that he still hadn't found out on his own about his cousin and her brother. "Never mind, you'll get it later."

"Not gonna tell me, are you?" Lucas sat back.

"Nope," Maya did the same.

"Bet you I can figure it out."

"What's your wager?"

"If I guess correctly… I get to name your bakery business," he decided. Maya gasped.

"But I'm so good with the names," she whispered, then, with a squint, "Fine. But if you're wrong… and you get only one chance," she held up one finger. He tipped his head, inviting her to set the wager. "If you get it wrong, you have to… pose for the logo," she smirked victoriously. He snickered.

"Will I be wearing a shirt in this?"

"Why would you do a thing like that?" she shook her head. He breathed out, extended his hand.

"Deal." She shook his hand. "Dora and Sam?" he answered at once, and oh how her eye twitched, trying to rein in her poker face.

"What about them?" she asked, casual as ever.

"They're together now, aren't they?" She didn't reply. "Last time I saw Sam, actually the last few times I saw him, he won't look me in the eye, like he thinks I'm going to say something. The only reason I can think of is it would have to do with Dora, who is my cousin. Did he kiss her or… No, he'd be too shy… Did she kiss him?" She didn't reply, but by the way Maya looked to the ceiling, he didn't have to hear it. "Now, what _are_ we going to call this thing?" Maya groaned. "Pretty weird name for a bakery," he smirked.

"Counter offer," Maya looked back at him. "I name the bakery… You get to name whoever's in here," she pointed to her belly. Now she had his attention.

"Seriously?" he smiled.

"I mean, I picked Elliott… mostly because of another wager, but still. It's only fair."

"I accept your counter offer," Lucas nodded, the 'competitive' air now dissipated.

"What happens with the middle name thing, if it's another boy? I mean, your dad was an only child, and Pappy Joe didn't have a brother, and his father… I don't know… Elliott gets to carry that on, but what about this one?"

"I don't know," Lucas considered this for a moment. He had actually been sort of proud to get to continue the chain, passing on his name as his father had done with him, and his father before that, and his before that… "We can start a different chain."

"I like that," Maya agreed, smiling. "Now… can we revisit the part about the shirtless logo thing?"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	61. Experiments in Baking

_A/N: Daisyangel, I am sending you a PM about Alex!_

* * *

_Chapter 61_  
_Experiments in Baking_

It was on the whole predictable that the introduction of marriage and babies would have a way of adding a layer of domesticity to a person's life. Even so, both Maya and Lucas would be left to take in some of their days and think 'wow… when did this all happen?'

Maya had one of those today, in this moment. She was standing in the kitchen, working on a filling for the cake she was making. She'd put on the apron her mother-in-law had bought her a few days ago, in honor of her 'burgeoning business,' unsure whether it was for genuine coverage from stains or a feeling like even from a distance Melinda Friar would sense if she didn't wear it. The thing had come to rest along the curve of her bump of thirteen weeks, which seemed to take the fact that it was not forced into hiding like a reason to appear even bigger than it already was. Meanwhile, from where she stood, mixing away, she could see in the living room, where Pappy Joe had dozed off into a nap on the couch, while Lucas walked/danced around with their son. Elliott enjoyed this very much, if his laughter wasn't making it obvious enough.

Watching them, Maya could just sense this feeling of contentment in her husband, as he entertained their boy, and _that_ feeling echoed on to her, and… Yeah… That was a big dose of homey sentimentality, and she found she was beyond happy to bask in it. None of their lives may have been headed exactly the way they had believed them to be headed a year or so ago, but it was in no way for the worse. It was a new, unexpected happiness.

Over the last week, Maya had been spending countless hours, any hours she could in some way dedicate, aside from looking after things here at home, with Elliott and the Bee, and helping her mother with Alex, and helping her father so he could rest, in researching. This was not her research for Professors Robinson and Patil, no. This was baking research. She'd compiled a list of techniques and types of cakes and frostings and other elements that she wanted to learn to make, learn them until she had them down. Now, she was working through that list, or at least she was starting to work through it. This was day one. It wouldn't necessarily make for the most cohesive finished product, but she had a couple of tasters on hand who subscribed to the theory that, if it was edible, they would be up for anything.

"I could get you one of those bells," Lucas teased as he came into the kitchen, Elliott in one arm and giving all the indications of being ready to eat right this moment, to grab a bottle and get it ready for him. "Then when there's something for us to try…"

"You could run in here ahead of your grandfather who can't go as fast as you?" Maya asked, smirking. He couldn't even manage to turn on that Huckleberry face and try to claim he would never do that, being a southern gentleman and all. "If you want to pick one of those up right now, I won't stop you, so long as you also go and get a couple other things?" she asked, turning to him with _her_ very solid innocent face and a short list she'd been compiling.

"I'm taking Pappy Joe to my parents' after Elliott's fed, I can go and take care of that for you," Lucas nodded, earning himself a brief kiss in thanks.

"Going to see Pappy Tom and Granny Mel, huh?" Maya turned her smile to the baby now cooing for attention. "Guess I'll just have to test everything myself," she shrugged, resisting the urge to twist her smile into a smirk aimed to her poor cake-deprived husband.

"Not even a little, huh?" he asked, too amused to be hurt.

"Well… maybe… just a little…" she amended.

After the three generations of Friar men had gone off to visit a fourth, Maya had returned to her mission for the day, which involved a number of fruit fillings. She would go on to make a simple cake and frosting combo to go along with these, just to see how it all came together. The way she saw it, she had months to really take her time and explore, possibly do a few cakes for people she knew, before really seeing if she was ready and still wanting to take it a step further. What really mattered to her now was that it made her feel like she was accomplishing things, which she hadn't really done in a while. That almost sounded bad. She hadn't been doing _nothing_, no. She'd been looking after her son, her home, and her family. But this, the baking, and the prospect of her work with the professors, all appealed to that side of her she'd been forced to set aside, good reason or otherwise.

"Oh, well, you two are here for this, huh?" Maya looked to her feet, where two eager dogs stared back at her, both of them giving that familiar shuffle they made whenever she or Lucas or Pappy Joe would be cooking. They called it the Gimme Shuffle. "Right, let's see…" she scanned the counter, with the variety of fruits she'd collected for the day. "Can't have this, but these are good for a couple of moochers like you," she smirked, crouching with bits of apple in both palms. It wasn't long that Trix and Lou were munching away. "Right, back to it," Maya stood back up.

Her heart just about leapt out of her chest with surprise, pushing out a shout which in turn made the intruding visitor screech, while the dogs abandoned their apples in favor of barking, only until they realized this was not a stranger.

"Cara! What… Don't just sneak up on people, that's…" Maya breathed, blinking back the shock. Her little sister didn't say a word, but then her eyes had travelled down and done all the talking. As she had been prone to do, when taken with surprise or overwhelming emotion, her hand had gone to her belly, and if it hadn't been visible, which it was, this would have given her up, too. Cara looked back up to her with a grin.

"I knew it!" she declared, hurrying to embrace her big sister, who could only receive her.

"Little spy…" Maya sighed. Alright, she couldn't _not_ laugh.

"I'm sorry that I startled you, I just wanted to see for myself…"

"And breaking in was the best idea?"

"I have my key," Cara pointed out. "And if you didn't know I was coming, you wouldn't wear a big shirt or anything like that to cover that up," she pointed.

"Nothing gets by you," Maya squinted at her.

"When were you going to say?" Cara wondered, sounding like she assumed the baby was much further along than it was. "When are you having it?"

"Uh, May again, early," Maya told her. Cara's eyes widened. "Yeah, I know, I got bigger so much faster, huh? We _were_ going to tell at Thanksgiving. We wanted to do Christmas again, but well…" she gestured to herself. "But you know what, _this_ time, you guys are all here in Texas with me, and I'm so glad. We can go through all of it together, yeah?"

"I can go with you when you have to go to the doctor's," Cara stated at once, with such a smile on her face, and Maya chuckled.

"Sure, if you want to. Oh, check this out," she smiled, lifting the headphones sitting around her sister's neck back on to her head. Disconnecting them from Cara's phone, she plugged them into her own, pulled from her pocket. A few seconds later, Maya pressed play, and into her little sister's ears flooded the steady sound of a heartbeat.

It reminded her of the day she had told her mother about Elliott, playing the recording for her. This was different of course. She'd been scared to tell her mother; she was genuinely excited to tell Cara.

"Wow…" Cara laughed, pressing the headset closer to her ears.

"You can't tell Eliza and Wyatt, not yet," Maya told her after putting her phone away. Before she could piece together the fact that the others, including Sam, must have already known, Maya gave her a look.

"I swear," Cara nodded.

There was something so… uplifting… about how happy Cara was to learn about the new baby. To her, there was not a problem on the horizon, no complications, no worries, there was just a new niece or nephew for her to love and look after, a few months from now. Sure, she was still a kid herself, and it was natural for her to think that way, to only see the good parts, but that wasn't a bad thing, was it? If she could see the world that way, then maybe that was how the world could be, if she kept believing it. There might be bumps in the road, but that promise would still exist.

"So, back home, got any homework lying around?" Maya asked her little sister, brushing a blond fringe from her face. Cara shook her head. "Chores?"

"Done, done," Cara promised.

"Well, that's great, because I could use an assistant… and a taster."

"I'm not very good," Cara hesitated, making it clear how she was looking forward to the part where she got to eat things but had little enough faith in her abilities as to expect anything worth eating in the end.

"When I was your age, I could probably have poisoned someone eventually, the way I was going," Maya pointed out, which made her sister laugh. "But I kept trying, and I got better, didn't I?" Cara smiled and nodded. "This is what today is about. I'm trying things, so I can learn. You can learn with me. If this whole cake thing takes off, this could be a permanent thing, with a pay day for you, too."

"For real?" Cara blinked.

"Yeah, for real, when have I lied to you?" In response, her sister nodded to her belly. "That doesn't count, okay? That's more of a right time kind of thing. Let's get you an apron."

When Lucas came back along to drop off the items from Maya's shopping list, he found the Hart sisters hard at work over a simmering pot,

"I see how it is," he told his wife with a smile. "I left on errands and you replaced me."

"Well, she's very good," Maya shrugged, turning a look to her proud little sister. Lucas was clearly just now noticing how Cara stood there, next to Maya, who could not have fooled anyone into thinking she was not pregnant. "It's alright, she figured it out," Maya told him. "Very efficient spy. Elliott's back with your parents?"

"With my dad and Pappy Joe," Lucas nodded. "My mother was out, visiting with yours," he explained.

"That's really kind of her," Maya smiled. Of course, Melinda Friar would be out lending a hand to her son's mother-in-law and the new baby.

"We should give her the cake," Cara tapped Maya's arm as the idea came to her.

"The test cake?" Maya asked, and Cara nodded. "You were going to take that one home, show Dad and Abigail and the other kids…"

"We can make another one. Mom's more of a lemon fan than raspberry," Cara told her.

"She is that," Maya agreed. "Okay, let's get it finished and packed up then."

They had made the cake together. Once they'd finished their raspberry filling, Cara had wanted to be able to see it all come together while she was still here, so they'd turned to the cake part. Once again, her doubts as to her baking abilities had flared up, but they'd resolved themselves in listening attentively to her sister's instructions. And, by the end of it, they had a very decent looking cake, and some not at all gloopy frosting, and so they had used it all to create the assembled structure sitting in the fridge. They pulled it out now, getting to work on adding some decorations before finally getting it ready to go with Lucas when he'd head back to his parents' house to pick up Elliott and Pappy Joe.

"Do you know what that is?" Maya asked her sister, after Lucas had taken off with the cake. "That is the very first Caya original creation." Cara laughed. "Okay, the name needs work, but you get what I'm saying."

"Yeah," Cara nodded before pulling her into a hug, which Maya happily reciprocated.

"Alright, we need to get back to work, time for lemons."

As uncertain as Cara had been, and though they'd had a few problems along the way, by the end of the afternoon Maya and Cara were left very satisfied for the results they'd obtained. Cara had a new cake to bring back home with her when Abigail came to pick her up, while Maya had a handful of different fruit fillings to show for her day's work, though she left it for both Lucas and his grandfather to get a look at themselves. For her part, she was exhausted and she had missed her baby dearly, so she'd taken up residence on the couch with Elliott asleep in her arms.

"Okay, I didn't think I liked blackberries, but I might be coming around to them now," Lucas informed his wife as he joined her on the couch.

"Cara said the same thing," Maya smiled, lightly rubbing at the baby's back.

"You also might want to keep that apricot one away from Pappy Joe, he got that look in his eyes like he might eat the whole thing with a spoon. You two were busy today."

"Like a couple of bees…" she agreed. "We're going to make it a thing, me and her, when I get the business going. It'll be like a family thing." Now she imagined Elliott, a few years from now, him and his little sibling, helping her in the kitchen, and it made her happy all over again. "Do you ever get that feeling, like you knew something would be good for you, whenever it happened, and when it did it was just… so much better than everything you imagined?"

"Every day," Lucas nodded, looking at her with their son.

"How was it out there today?" Maya asked, smiling.

"I got to see two grown men turn into the biggest clowns for this boy here," he informed her, which had her smile growing. "My dad kept doing whatever it took to make him laugh, and then Pappy Joe wasn't about to sit there quietly, so he got in on it, too."

"Tell me you have evidence of this."

"Photo and video evidence," Lucas nodded, moving to sit next to her. He had to take the volume down low, so not to wake the baby, but already it was something, and Maya looked very happy to see it.

"You wouldn't know it by looking at them most of the time, but they are seriously just goofy, the both of them…" she shook her head, trying to keep quiet for Elliott's sake.

"They really are," Lucas smiled back at her, even as a thought came to him. "I know my parents must have a ton of videos from when I was a baby, somewhere…" By the look on Maya's face, it might have been in his interest to get his hands on those as soon as possible.

"I've always been thankful to have your family in my life," she reflected. "But more and more now I'm so… _so_ happy that they are in his," she looked down to their sleeping son. "And that they'll be in the Bee's… and whoever else comes along."

"How many are you thinking there might be?" Lucas wondered aloud. They'd always known they wanted children, plural, but already just to have the one had been something, and then quite by surprise the second had followed… Now that they were looking down the barrel of having two children already, the question had come to feel just that much more warranted.

With the question put before her, Maya had to admit she had never really thought about it either. It had always been a sort of blurry idea, which was easy enough when there weren't any actual children yet. Now that they had one, and another on the way, suddenly it felt like there were two answers. There was the number they might have called up from dreams, the number they might have summarized as their hearts' desire. And then there was the other number, the one that came with concrete evidence of what it was already going to cost them to raise one child and now two children by the spring, now as they grew from infancy into childhood, and onward, and onward… and then what it would mean each time they added another.

Of course, all of this had happened so fast, so early in their lives, and much as neither of them regretted it, much as they were faring well enough, thanks to the support of their families and their own accomplishments, they _were_ still looking at it from this point in time. Lucas was still in school, and eventually she would be going back, too, and they would finish their degrees, they would start to work, more than they did at the moment…

They were resourceful, both of them. Lucas, he always went out there looking for the best way to provide for all of them, and she had never lacked in ideas for projects, for new ways to express her creativity and at the same time add to their household. They had wanted from the beginning to be self-sufficient, and even though they _had_ received some financial assistance from their parents, not to mention this house they were living in… they were putting in a vast majority. They wanted to keep it that way, wanted to tip the scales even further.

So, with all that, what was the reality number? The dream number, well… she might have been contented to have any and all children they were lucky to have, one way or another, filling their house to the brim until they had to expand, and expand. In reality…

Looking over at him, she held up a tentative hand, four fingers out, thumb tucked into her hand but unfolding and refolding as though she kept on oscillating between the two. Four, maybe five. Lucas smiled. He'd been trying to think of his own number, but he couldn't make up his mind, and that… that felt like a good one to him.

"Yeah?" Maya asked. "It's not too much?"

"I don't think so, not if you don't," he promised.

"I don't know, it feels like a lot, but… You grew up an only child, same as I did…" He nodded. "And you turned out great, yeah?"

"I would like to think so, yes."

"I look at my siblings, the Harts and the Hunters, all of them together… They have something so good together, and there's going to be a lot more when they grow up more. You and me, in this house… we could make that happen for them, we could give them that life." Oh, it mattered so much to her, he could see it, and if it wasn't what _he_ wanted, too, it might have swayed him. Instead, it only made him want it all that much more, especially with her. His response came in the shape of his putting his arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. She hummed, eased by his nearness.

"Let's just focus on getting this second one into the world before we get too deep thinking about three, and four, and maybe five?" he suggested.

"One at a time," she agreed.

"Unless we get to number five and end up with twins… or triplets…" Lucas joked. Maya looked back at him.

"If you've just jinxed us," she pointed her finger at his face.

"What, you don't want to be surrounded by seven tall sons?" he doubled up, much too amused by the look on her face, which went from 'don't you dare' to 'oh, hold on…'

"Well, we only have the one now, and he just peed on me," she whispered, holding his gaze as he fought not to laugh. "Now you get to change him while I go and change myself."

"Yeah, sounds fair," Lucas got up from the couch and took up the baby, carrying him carefully away. "What happened to your diaper there, bud?"

"Seven tall sons…" Maya muttered as she followed, frowning at her shirt. "You can't say things like that around here, come on…"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	62. A Day For Thankfulness

_Chapter 62_  
_A Day For Thankfulness_

"Hey, no, I know, bud, I know…" Lucas tried to comfort the fussing boy even as he worked to get him dressed up. "It's not fun, is it? It won't last, it'll get better, okay?" As soon as he'd finished getting Elliott's outfit on, he'd picked up his son and continued doing his best to make him feel better. Maya had been the one to realize, just a couple days back, that he might have started teething, and it had only gotten confirmed as time went on. By this morning, the baby had turned a corner right into 'this is very unpleasant, please make it stop.'

Of course, it had be _this_ day of all days, meaning that not only would they be dealing with a teething baby, but also family and friends coming over, for Thanksgiving, and for the big reveal on the Bee. They couldn't exactly go and tell Elliott to get over it, so they'd just have to deal with it, wouldn't they?

"Got a nice, cool teething ring with your name on it downstairs, come on," Lucas moved out of the nursery, pressing a kiss to his son's head. He stopped in the hallway, looking into the room across the way, where he could see Maya stand in front of the mirror, turning this way and that as she adjusted her dress. She'd bought it the day after her little sister had come along and confirmed for herself that she was about to be an aunt again, which had been the day when she'd finally decided to tell their parent group.

Maya was almost sure a couple of them already suspected. They would all hang out, some or all of them together, a few times a week, whether it was at someone's house, or the mall, or out for a walk, a workout… That day, she was to meet Ainsley, so they might take Elliott and Cameron into the pool. There was no way she would be able to hide a damned thing in a swimsuit. So, when they had gone into the locker room, Maya had tapped her friend's shoulder. Ainsley had turned around and Maya had lifted up her shirt from her belly. If any of the others had suspected, Ainsley had not been one of them, going by the surprised little cry she'd given.

After leaving the pool, they'd ended up at the mall, shopping for the best 'surprise, everyone!' dress for Thanksgiving. In no time, Maya had reached out to Billie, and Aaron and Marius, and Brianna, and they had gotten to find out, too. Of those four, only Brianna sounded genuinely surprised at the news.

In a way, Maya felt bad about telling them before everyone else who still had no idea, those who had been her friends longer, but she'd gotten over it in time, telling herself that length did not remove the most important word: friends. They were that to her, too, and she wasn't about to penalize them or declare them any less important just because they'd all known one another for less than a year.

Now, today… today was the big 'unveiling,' the end of covertness and secrets. After today, she would be pregnant out in the world and not just at home. They'd had a day just like this, last year. Of course, that time, it had been Christmas… and it had also been the day Lucas had proposed to her and they'd been engaged. It had been a very good day, and the memory of it could still make her smile, even as it quelled her nerves over the 'big reveal' they were about to make today.

"Hey…" she turned around, catching the sound of Elliott's discomfort. He was already reaching out his little hand at her, and Lucas passed him over into his mother's arms. "What's the matter, Cranky Sprout? Gums got you down?" she asked, moving around with him, rubbing his back and humming his lullaby as they made their way down together.

In the kitchen, as Lucas retrieved the teething ring, Maya stood by and watched Pappy Joe, 'hard at work.' He was tending his turkey with so much intensity that she didn't want to disturb him and risk him dropping to the floor for the surprise. When Lucas came back and presented the cold object to their son, Maya whispered for them to leave the chef to his kitchen.

"You know, he used to do this, every year when I was little. I haven't seen him do the turkey since I was maybe ten or eleven."

"Yes, you told me," Maya reminded him, brushing lightly at Elliott's fine blond hair as he held the cold thing in his mouth. Lucas would keep a close watch as it sometimes slipped from his grip. "He wanted to do it this year, I wasn't about to tell him no. I think we know what got him back in the kitchen." Lucas tipped his head to Elliott. Maya chuckled. "In a couple years, when he can actually eat that turkey and know who made it…"

"Patty," Lucas agreed now, and Maya nodded.

"Impressing a girl…" she whispered. "What happens if the two of them get serious? He might decide to move to Houston to be with her."

"And leave him? Not going to happen," Lucas shook his head, looking to the boy too preoccupied with the plastic thing to pay them any mind.

"I wouldn't want to keep him from that if it's what he wants…"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, yeah? It's a turkey, not an engagement ring. By the way? You look beautiful in that dress," he smiled, the expression soon reciprocated.

"Ready to flaunt," she told him, raising her chin.

In a bit of perfect timing, this gesture was met with the chime of the doorbell, making them both freeze as they looked back to one another.

"That'll be some of yours, the parade's starting soon," Lucas stated. "How do you want to do this?"

"Well, better get them in the house first…"

"Right, I'll get the door."

Opening the door, Lucas found himself nearly bowled over by the giddy Hunter twins as they crowded around his legs, asking if they'd missed 'it,' likely to mean the parade… and Santa.

"No, you're right on time, with ten minutes to spare. What's that?" he turned to MJ, as the boy just shy of turning two brandished a small gift bag from where he sat perched in his father's arms. "That for me?" Lucas asked, and MJ shook his head. "No? Maya then?" MJ nodded. "Oh, well, we need to go find her, yeah?" As soon as Shawn set him down, the boy was off running, his sisters on his heels. Shawn went to help Katy with Alex, which left Lucas to go chasing after his small brother and sisters-in-law.

He found them just as, having set Elliott down in his seat, Maya now had her young brother in one arm, while her mesmerized sisters had their hands up to her rounded bump. They knew exactly what it meant, and they were very excited. Maya was presently explaining to them that, as much as they would like to feel the baby kick like they'd felt their baby brother or their nephew, this one was still too small for them to feel yet.

With the parade's start as imminent as it was, the Hunters were just barely landed among them when the Harts next arrived. Nellie and Gracie had to be told to keep quiet about the surprise, so the others could be surprised, too, as Lucas once again stepped in as greeter. Along came Eliza and Wyatt, ahead of their older and knowing siblings. Wyatt, being the same age as the twins, had much the same reaction of 'oh, fun, a baby!' before moving up to put his hand on his sister's belly so he might say hello. Eliza, twice his age as she was, gave a great gasp and squeal before launching into questions which highlighted just how much she and Cara were growing to be alike in many ways.

"What's this one going to be?" came off as the one she was most curious about. Maya had to remind _her_ that it was too early to know that, too. Asked what she hoped it would be, Eliza had given it much thought, so much that she had to be reminded the parade was starting, and in the end she chose not to pronounce herself until later. After she'd dashed off, Lucas had caught his wife's eye, giving her a discreet sign of 'seven tall sons.' Maya squinted at him, and he didn't need signs to know what that meant.

With Maya's family arrived, they had a brief pause in the revelations. Lucas' parents arrived an hour later, and _they_ already knew. For the time being, they were more concerned in seeing to their teething grandson. Lucas and Maya would look to each other sometimes, neither doing so well to keep from laughing at how Melinda Friar held the babe like she was soothing him from his first heartbreak. Then, it was Patty Robinson, an hour after _that_, and in contrast Elliott's great grandfather looked like a schoolboy about to be visited by his first crush. When she walked in and quickly appeared delighted by the scents wafting from the kitchen, the look on Pappy Joe's face was priceless.

"Hey, Dylan just texted, they'll be here in ten," Lucas told Maya as she came back down from changing the baby.

"Good," she breathed, excited and nervous all at once. They were stopping by for the afternoon, after which they were all due for dinners with their respective families.

"Should we maybe do the others, in New York, and then well… Nadine…" Lucas asked. Maya's face gave a twinge. She might have had a slightly better grasp on her emotions than she'd done back around Halloween, but the ongoing split between Zay and Nadine continued to have its effects from time to time.

"Yeah, let's do that," she agreed. They excused themselves and went up the stairs, taking Elliott along so he might be greeted by his faraway aunts and uncles.

They set themselves up at Lucas' desk, in their room, bringing a second chair so they might sit in front of the laptop together, with Elliott in his father's arms, the better for his mother to spring her surprise. Trying for Nadine first, they got no answer, followed by a message in the chat, saying she'd get back to them in a few minutes. So, they moved on to the New York bunch. This would include Farkle, Isadora, Asher, Ray, Joey, Rebecca, and Zay. This time around, they got an answer fast enough to suggest the one who answered had been right there at the computer when the call came in.

"Good day, Texas, sweet Texas," Zay greeted them, zoning in on the baby right away, trying to get his attention even as Lucas tried to assist this from his end. Elliott only started to cry. "What's the matter, little man, not happy to see your Uncle Zay?"

"It's not you," Lucas promised. "His teeth are coming in."

"Sounds painful," Zay cringed.

"He'll get through it," Maya nodded, looking to the baby, reaching to join one of her hands to the one Lucas already had at his back. "Happy Thanksgiving," she turned a smile back to their friend.

"Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Friars," Zay tipped his head to them.

"Is everyone out there with you?" Maya asked.

"Oh, yeah, everyone…" Zay confirmed, the tone in his voice saying so much more than his words. This year, rather than to have them all fly back for Thanksgiving _and_ Christmas, their families had flown out to spend this first holiday with them. Zay absolutely had not been looking forward to what his parents would have to say regarding his choices of late, between his taking a break from school and then his break with Nadine.

"So you went to hide with your computer for a while?" Lucas guessed.

"Something like that," Zay gave a slow nod.

"Can you go get the others so we can say hello? Not your parents, I mean…" Maya asked.

"Yeah, sure, just a sec," Zay got up and walked out, leaving them to get a look at his small room, which barely looked like a room and more like 'the place where I dumped all my stuff after I moved out from Boston.'

As the rest of their New York friends crowded into the room, they almost all had a similar look to them like they were about to give a cheerfully loud greeting but pulled it back in when they saw the baby. He'd stopped crying by now, but he would absolutely have started again if he'd been startled by several loud noises at once.

"Can't wait to see you guys in person," Asher smiled, after a round of wishes of happy Thanksgiving back and forth between the two ends of the call.

"Us, too," Maya nodded. "Just a few more weeks…" It didn't seem likely that they could have gotten to this point where 'a few weeks' felt like a bearably short thing for them to wait out, when it used to be that the prospect of them being separated by miles and miles like this for any number of years had them parting in tears. But now here they were, just about two and a half years into this, and they had adjusted… to a degree…

For a few minutes, they went through what would have been expected of this call, to the unsuspecting bunch in New York especially. How were things? How was school? Was work okay? What were they up to back in New York these days? The way they went on, things were great. Those of them who had moved out from Texas after high school had gone from experiencing the transition Maya and Riley had done, in reverse, to adopting the city as a place they now knew well and truly appreciated in their own rights. Whether they would stay there or not once they finished school remained to be seen.

"Maya, how's your father doing?" Farkle asked, and with the happy news she was waiting to unload the question came like just a bit of a gut punch, but she handled it as well as she could.

"Uh, alright, I guess," she replied, checking that the door was still closed and pulling her hair over one shoulder as she slowly nodded. "He's still kind of exhausted a lot, even though he says he's feeling better than he did for a while." She would try not to watch him like he was about to drop at any second, she really would, but nothing she'd seen from him in the last few months had been able to chase that one memory from her mind. It was just imprinted in her mind's eye, that day back in January when her father had shown up on her front step and almost immediately passed out in front of her.

"He's got her there looking after him," Lucas added, turning a smile to his wife like someone prodding at dark clouds to let the sun shine back through. "And him, too," he looked to Elliott, who'd calmed down some, looking at the faces on the screen like he was back on the couch downstairs with his great grandfather. It felt like the perfect opening right there, for her to make her big reveal.

There was a knock at the door, and getting a look at the time Maya and Lucas both realized they might have missed the doorbell, bringing the rest of the group in their midst. This was good though; they could potentially make their announcement to everyone all together.

"Come in!" Lucas called out. The door opened, and their expectations were swiftly swept aside.

"Hey… Told you I'd just be a few minutes," Nadine smiled.

Maya had been sure she'd been doing well enough, managing her emotions in talking with her friends back in New York, wishing they were here. And then Nadine had shown up, completely unexpected, and it had brought her to her feet, wanting nothing more than to embrace her friend the way she'd been wanting to for a month.

It took all of a second, as Maya stood from her chair, for several things to happen all at once, and her realizing that they could all see her little 'secret' was only the second of those. She looked down at herself, up at Nadine – who suddenly had tears in her eyes – over to the screen – where an array of various shocked faces was collected – and back to Lucas – who instinctively tried to cover Elliott's ears even as he smiled back at her.

"Right…" she breathed. "Surprise?"

"Nadine, for goodness' sake, will you hug her for us?" Asher called from the screen, and both Maya and Nadine laughed as they moved to do as told.

"When did you… what…" Nadine tried to speak.

"Spot on impression of us last month," Maya told her, looking back to Lucas. He nodded, reminiscing.

At this point there was very little else they could do except to pass on what they knew, from how far along she was to when she was due, though both Maya and Lucas expected copious amounts of belly rubbing and additional presents to materialize when they all came down over Christmas. With the group out of Houston not far behind, they had to cut the call short, with wishes for courage as they all dealt with their visiting families. The only other stand out, as they couldn't help but see it, was the 'contact' between Zay on the screen and Nadine there in the room. They didn't exactly speak, but it felt as though this might have been the first and closest thing to a conversation they had had in a long time. What it would or wouldn't do for them in the long run, they really could not say, but it had happened.

After they hung up, it felt as though they had to finally acknowledge the fact that Nadine was here, in Austin, in her friends' house, and not back in Boston where they had assumed she was up until a few minutes ago.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" Maya asked.

"Uh, hello, why didn't _you_ tell me you were having another baby?" Nadine retorted.

"Mine's just timing, yours is… it's… Oh, I don't care, you're here," Maya laughed, brushing at her own new tears. "How long are you staying?"

"Just over the weekend, but I might come back as soon as the semester's over. It's just… It's not the same, without all you guys, and I might have gone to New York, but…" Nadine shook her head, looking down for a beat, pulling herself together again so she might look at Elliott. "He's getting so big…" she beamed, reaching for his hand. He watched her with some curiosity as he squeezed her finger.

"Yeah, we noticed," Lucas let out what could only be called a 'my baby is growing up' sad dad sigh as he passed Elliott into his Aunt Nadine's eager arms. Maya had such a look like she couldn't wait to tease him about this, but then it wasn't as though she wouldn't get pulled right down into sad mom territory in the process, so it might have been better to leave it alone and move on.

"Teething, huh?" Nadine asked.

"I just want it to be over," Maya nodded, right before they caught the sound of the doorbell from below. She gasped, turning to Lucas. That would be their last group, their final reveal before it all just became telling. "The twins…" she told her husband, and he took off at once. Those two loved answering the door, and it wouldn't be past them to go 'hey everyone, guess what!'

Getting down the stairs, Lucas found that his hurrying had not been unwarranted, as he found Shawn walking off with one each of his little daughters under his arms. Nellie and Gracie both found this too amusing to be bothered, and meanwhile there were Riley, Dylan, Sophie, and Chiara, freshly arrived after their drive from Houston. Presently, they were saying hello to Maya's mother, there with four-week-old Alex in her arms and MJ being seen to by Lucas' mother.

He had barely gotten to open his mouth, about to say hello, to draw his friends' attention, when Dylan happened to look back and, with a call of Nadine's name, get the others to do the same. Now they were hurrying over to greet the visitor, who was as happy to see them as they were to see her. Lucas imagined she herself or Maya had come to the conclusion that it would be best for her to come down first, get _that_ surprise out of the way so not to steal Maya's thunder. It also became clear that the two of them up there had come up with a plan, as Nadine told the quartet that they had the gang from New York upstairs on Skype. This got them moving in that direction with no idea that the call in question had started and ended without them. Lucas knew what they would really find, so he followed.

Arriving at the room where they had been summoned, the group was instructed into silent as Maya stood at the crib, where Lucas and the others could see that Elliott had just been put down for a nap.

"He finally went to sleep, poor guy needed it real bad." The way she stood, there'd be no seeing her belly until she turned around, but clearly the unexpected gift of the baby falling asleep placed her in the awkward position of not being able to move without causing a reaction which would in turn undo this small miracle. "Alright, listen," she whispered, stretching out her arm and pointing her finger at her gathered friends. All the while, she did not turn around, which made for a very strange sight if you didn't know what was going on. If you did… well, it was just funny. "You will not make a sound higher than what my voice is right now. You will _want_ to, you really, really will, but you are going to _resist_ that urge, are we clear?" Her finger moved to each face until it would give a nod. "Okay, you just remember that promise. Remember it, hold on to it…" She turned around, facing them properly at last.

Riley very nearly squeaked, until Dylan's hand managed to clamp over her mouth, his other hand already over his own mouth. Meanwhile, Sophie was employing the technique of pressing her lips together as hard as she could in order to prevent any sound coming out, even as her wife had something like the opposite response. Chiara's lips were not pressed together so much as her mouth hung wide open in surprise, and no sound came out at all.

"We were going to wait until Christmas, like last year," Lucas told them. "But, well…" he gestured toward Maya, who was now coming forward, the better to be caught up in a hug with many arms closing around her.

Between their arrival and the time when they finally had to head out toward the Zvolensky house and the Orlando house, very little time had been spent talking about anything but this new baby. It felt really good now to be around all these people they cared about, these people they loved, and to be able to share this news which had been so monumentally important to them for weeks already. Suddenly, Lucas' academic realignment made a lot more sense to all those who had previously been left to wonder why he would abandon his former goals. They could understand this, get behind it.

"So, I've been thinking," Maya hummed, that night, as she and Lucas readied for bed. He was checking in on the sleeping Elliott, who'd found little more beyond distress after waking from his nap, which left him to be passed around from person to person, as this did sort of calm him, for a little while, until it had to start again.

"Yeah?" Lucas asked, moving across the room to sit next to her on the bed.

"I'd like Sam to be this one's godfather," she told him, setting a hand to her bump. Lucas barely had to consider this. He smiled, nodded slowly.

"I'd like that, too," he told Maya, who smiled and leaned in to kiss him.

"That means you get to pick godmother," she told him. Last time, it had been reversed. She'd picked Elliott's godmother, Riley, while Lucas had picked his godfather, Zay. And when put to the challenge, he found he had his answer already just there at the forefront of his mind.

"Nadine," he bowed his head, and Maya grinned. Their friend in question was presently sleeping on the couch downstairs. She didn't feel like going to her parents' just yet, so they'd insisted she stay here for the night. "You want to wake up and ask her, don't you?" Lucas guessed.

"Maybe just a little," Maya admitted. "I won't, I swear, just…"

"I know," he assured her. "Hey…" he smiled after a moment of silence. "Secret's out now."

"Mostly out. We still need to tell a few more people, important people who just couldn't be here today." Rosa, Willow, Lion… Bishop, Leona… Kayla, Franny… "But we will," she went on. "The genie's out, etc, etc…"

"Good," he nodded, kissing her once again, twice… "I started looking at names," he told her, and she perked up at once.

"Can I see? Can I see?" she quietly pleaded. Lucas chuckled.

"It'd be pretty rude of me to say I've been doing that and then keep it to myself."

"I wasn't going to say it, but now you did, so yes," Maya hummed, moving to settle next to him as he dug out the name book from his night stand. "I was wondering where that went."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	63. Set the Lights & Bring the Cheer

_Chapter 63_  
_Set the Lights and Bring the Cheer_

"What's with the face?" Lucas called down from where he worked to fix the strings of colorful light bulbs along the roof of the house. Down below, Pappy Joe was unspooling the line as he went, while Maya sat on a lawn chair planted in the already melting light snowfall, observing the whole thing. With her coat, her hat, mittens, the whole thing, it was still very clear on her face that something had her upset.

"My face is just fine," she called back. "I just really wanted to get to help decorate the house, our first Christmas out here, _his_ first Christmas," she explained, looking down to Elliott sat in her lap.

Unlike her, the six-month-old looked very happy to be outside, bundled up as they had made him. He would laugh and bat his little arms, and then it would be very hard for his mother to do anything but laugh along and cuddle him up good. She wasn't about to go and get up a ladder at sixteen weeks with their Bee in her belly, but then they wouldn't even let her help in any way, wanting her to sit and take it easy while they handled the outdoor part.

It had been three weeks now since Thanksgiving, and the big unveiling, and Nadine's surprise visit. Even though they had declared how this would be the end of revelations, it couldn't be entirely true, could it? There were still people in their lives who had yet to learn about Baby Friar Number Two, Codename Bee, and this meant a few more outbursts, a few more giddy surprises. The top prize easily went to Rosa, who had been invited over to make up for how she had been unable to join them on Thanksgiving. She had shown up in mid-morning, the better to spend as much time as possible with them.

"Hey, look at that, he's got a tooth now," she'd grinned upon seeing Elliott in his seat near the couch.

"Yeah, he earned it," Lucas had told her, thinking of the last few days. There had been nothing for them to do, no matter how much they hated to see him in pain and discomfort. And now here was his reward for it, a shiny and much chronicled new tooth.

"Hi, there, hi," Rosa had leaned in to pick him up, When she'd done so, his knitted blanket had fallen off of him, and Lucas had to resist smirking as it took Rosa way too long to see the writing on the front of the boy's onesie. She was so preoccupied with making faces at Elliott, encouraged each time by his reactions, that eventually Maya had lost her patience back in the kitchen.

"Did she see it yet?" she'd called out, making Rosa pause and look to Lucas with questions in her eyes.

"Not yet," Lucas had called back.

"She's making faces at him, isn't she?"

"You know I can hear you, right?" Rosa had called out at this point.

"Sure, but can you read?" Maya had countered.

"Read…" Rosa had looked back to Lucas, still baffled. He could only shrug and cross his arms in wait. Rosa had been left to look at Elliott again. He'd been entirely undisturbed by all this, focused instead on trying to get hold of Rosa's glasses. She was keeping her head out of his reach, so he had no luck, but he kept trying. Finally, she'd managed to get a look at what was written on his onesie. It had been a gift from his very eager Granny Mel, and both Maya and Lucas had felt a bit reluctant to put it on him, like they might be jinxing themselves, but for the occasion, it was only right. After all, he really was going to be a _BIG BROTHER._

To look at her face, it really felt like her brain had taken a journey, zigzagging along as though the obvious answer couldn't possibly be true, so this either had to be a joke or she was really misinterpreting things.

"What's going on back there?" Maya had called out, clearly impatient.

"I'm not sure, honestly," Lucas had told her.

"Oh, come on…" Maya had finally come sweeping in from the kitchen, back in her 'ta-da!' dress. Rosa had turned, seeing her, seeing that growing belly, and then she'd turned again, toward Lucas.

"Could you take your son here for a minute?"

"Sure," he'd laughed. Once he'd relieved her of Elliott, Rosa had turned to Maya once again, before stepping up to her and hugging her.

"Are you sure it's not a pillow? Or a big lunch?" she'd quietly asked.

"I am, and it's not," Maya had laughed.

"You guys are so… fertile…" had been Rosa's response, and for having expected no less out of her, it still was almost too much for them to take, with how it made them laugh harder.

By now, everyone knew, which was just as well. As predicted, they were nearing Christmas and there was no way anyone would _not_ have known that Maya was pregnant, no matter what she wore.

"How does it look?" Lucas asked, jogging over to join his wife after he'd come back down from the ladder. Elliott made a happy noise at the sight of him, and Lucas gladly scooped him up.

"Well, they're not lit yet, and it's daytime, so… they look like lightbulbs," Maya looked up at him with a self-satisfied smile. "What about the lawn… things?" she waved her arms around to indicate the empty space.

"We were at the store, and Elliott saw one of those inflatable Santas and freaked out, and you said 'it's okay, Sprout, I'll poke him dead,'" Lucas dutifully recited.

"I stand by it," Maya stood up, trailing her chair back toward the house. "There are other things, aren't there?"

"Right about now, this is usually where you get a… brilliant idea?" he challenged, stealing a look to Elliott like he was telling him 'watch this, son, it's going to be great.'

"You're going to put me on the spot, aren't you?" Maya squinted at him for a moment, but then her gaze shifted, an idea rising in her mind. "Do you think your aunt could help me make some cut-outs or something. She can take care of the wood, then I can paint them?"

"See?" Lucas smiled.

"We could put lights in them, too, so we can see them from far away at night…"

Dot was on board as soon as Maya told her what she was after. She would need a few days to get it done once Maya sent her the specifications, but after that she would be right on it. Soon, Maya was sitting on the couch, legs up, with a cushion in her lap and her sketchbook open on top, where she was now working out her order to Lucas' aunt.

"I thought you wanted to help with the decorating," Lucas asked, indicating the bare tree sitting in wait of ornamentation as he helped Elliott out of his extra layers.

"Clearly, I am," Maya showed him her book, where she'd already started tracing reindeer. "Anyway, I have a perfect view here. I can supervise. Go on, decorate," she flicked her pencil to the tree like a wand.

"This is one of those 'I get to stare' deals, isn't it?" Lucas guessed.

"You said it, not me," she 'sighed.'

"I'm starting to see how we ended up here," he replied, returning Elliott to her. She easily mastered keeping him in one arm where she could carry on drawing.

"Lights first," Maya quietly instructed, and he obliged with a smile and a slow turn. "Logging that appreciation," she promised, smiling back.

Little by little, it was all coming together. Lucas was getting the decorations on to the tree, all the while following the careful instructions of his 'supervisor' as she ensured that all the ornaments were properly spread over the branches, giving 'good coverage.' As she did this, she also sketched out the cut-outs, with all the reindeer and a jolly Saint Nick in his sleigh. Pappy Joe had been recruited to help her figure out dimensions, with the bonus of getting some time with his great grandson. By the end, it was both him and Maya telling Lucas what to put next and where to set it. And because his patience was legendary, he followed both of their guiding hands.

"So? Are we good? I think if I put one more thing on there it might actually give up and collapse," Lucas stepped back when he was done. Maya and Pappy Joe looked on, eventually getting up so they could see the whole tree.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Maya asked after a few seconds of quiet contemplation.

"No, but it's not about redoing the whole thing, right?" Lucas asked back.

"It's not, no, the tree is perfect," she quickly promised. "I _was_ thinking how next year we might have to rethink things. Elliott will be walking around by then. What if he gets too close and the tree just falls on him?" she mimed, and Lucas swore she was looking at the tree now in the same way she'd done the inflatable Santa that made their son cry.

"We won't let it," Lucas shook his head.

"Yeah… No, you're right," she waved off the thought, like she mostly blamed herself for letting it exist in the first place. "I should scan these for Dot," she held up her sketchbook before heading off upstairs.

With the rest of the decorations installed around the living room, out on the porch, and into the kitchen, Lucas went and put away the empty boxes in the basement before climbing back up. When he got there, he had to stop and look around, capturing the whole look. It was late afternoon by now, and the light from outside was turning toward sunset. The lights were starting to stand out more, and to see it now… How many Christmases had he spent out here, with his grandparents, and then with Pappy Joe alone after his grandmother's passing…

A lot had changed by now, of course. It was his and Maya's house now, and it showed, but still, something about having all the decorations, and the tree… It reminded him of those old times, and it filled him with a warmth he had not expected. He looked to the angel on top of the tree. Susannah Friar had made that angel with her own two hands. It had been well cared for across the years. When his grandmother had passed, the angel had gone on to his father, and it had topped their trees for years, until now. His father had brought the angel over to the house last night, which was what had sent them on this decoration marathon today. It was theirs to look after now. The idea that, someday, years from now, Elliott might carry it on as an heirloom was just something he had not known he wanted to see until this moment, watching his grandfather quietly looking to his late wife's angel as he held his own boy.

"Lucas!" Maya called from upstairs, and the tone of surprise in her voice sent him sprinting up the stairs to find her.

"Where are you?" he asked, even as he turned his head and spotted her sitting on the nursery floor. "Did you fall?" he approached her at once.

"No, no," she quickly promised, all the while reaching for his hands. He thought she wanted him to help her up, until she caught hold and pulled for him to join her.

"What…" he started to ask, even as she made him come closer and finally set his hands here and there on her belly.

"I felt it," she smiled. "Little buzzing Bee."

"What?" Lucas brightened now, resettling his posture as he sat there with her, feeling for something, anything. "Are you sure?" he asked, after a few seconds had gone by.

"Yes, I'm sure, I have done this before," she reminded him. "Might not happen again for a while," she finally had to concede. It wasn't anything big, not yet, but it had definitely been something she could feel.

"I can wait," Lucas told her, shifting his hands underneath her shirt, for more direct contact, which she happily obliged.

"I had so many ideas of what our first Christmas with Elliott would be like. In all of those, I never thought we'd be here like this, with this little guy or girl… making an overture."

"Ready for an encore whenever you are," Lucas bowed his head to the increased bump of her belly and his hands over it. Maya smiled, brushing her fingers through his hair even as she looked up to the room around them.

"We're going to have to do something about this place," she stated.

"We've got time," he reminded her.

"No, I know," she agreed. "But then what happens with Elliott when the new baby comes? Do we keep both cribs in our room or do we finally move him out here? And if we do, then we can't make the transition right when the baby comes home. He might need time to adjust, _we_ might need time, too. So, we might as well have that second crib already, then we'll have one here and one there, in case we need to bring him back in the beginning."

"We could start transitioning him in here after the holidays?" Lucas suggested.

"After my birthday?" Maya countered, which made him smile.

"Like I said, after the holidays." He looked down then, back up again a moment later to seek confirmation that he'd felt what he thought he'd felt. Maya nodded, and he looked back down. "So, we agree," he breathed.

The very next day, they had set out early after breakfast, returning just before lunch with the box carrying the new crib. Much as Pappy Joe had offered to help, Lucas had instead recruited Mitch Sanderson to help him carry the thing up into the nursery. After their neighbor from up the lane had eaten with them, he'd offered to help with the assembly but had been thanked instead and sent on his way.

"I sat out the lights on the roof because that made sense, but I can help with this part," she told Lucas, who did not argue one moment.

In what felt like little to no time, they were just about done.

"I'm concerned," Maya declared. Lucas turned back to her. "I wasn't there for the other one, and every time I've seen one of these put together, it's been on TV or in movies, and it always seems so complicated. This was easy. What if we did it wrong and it just falls to pieces with our kid inside?"

"First of all, it's more solid than that," Lucas promised. "Second, we're not going to put either Elliott or the Bee in there until we're sure it's fine. Third… I put the other one together with your dad and mine. It wasn't that hard then either, and we did pretty well, I think."

"You did, yes," Maya slowly agreed, giving an apologetic look he knew to be her 'you know how I get about these things' look. He did know, of course, and he would always respond in kind, talking her off the worried mom ledge as it was.

"What about the walls? Are you going to add to the mural?" Lucas asked now. Maya's eyes scanned their surroundings, the cheerfully painted walls…

"No, not yet," she decided. "Elliott hasn't even slept in here, really. Although… he might miss his tree… Do you think he'll notice if it's not overhead anymore?"

"Good thing we'll be testing it out ahead of time, huh?" Lucas pointed out, tipping all the credit on to her.

"Good thing," she agreed, turning her eyes to the new crib now. It was really one of those things which, for all they'd experienced up to now, since the day they'd learned of this new baby, made everything feel that much more real. They'd had another one of those moments, just the day before, when Maya had felt the baby move.

"Is it a bad thing that I really just want him or her to be here already?" Lucas asked as they stood by the new crib.

"Why would it be bad?" Maya wondered.

"Maybe not bad, but just… I love all of this, love going through all the steps with the pregnancy and you, but at the same time, it's just like…"

"We did this already?" she guessed, and he nodded. "No, I know what you mean. I feel it, too. I know I'm going to miss this part when it's over, but I also just really want to have the baby be here with us already."

"That is going to be so many more diapers…" Lucas commented, and Maya laughed.

"So many…" she whispered. "We're going to have to develop a system."

"I don't know, I think we've got things down already. Two of us, two of them, it'll be no sweat."

"Yeah, until it's _not_ the two of us and you're back at school," Maya reminded him.

"I'll be finishing out a semester when this one comes," Lucas stated even as he realized it.

"Yeah…" she realized it, too. They might have wondered how it could have taken them this long to piece it together, knowing the baby was due in early May and how it would cross with the end of classes, and then finals…

"What if I miss it?"

"The Bee won't know if you do," she pointed out. "And I know you wouldn't be anywhere else unless you ready had to. We both do what we have to do."

It was what he needed to hear, and still she could tell he dreaded the idea of missing this birth. To see him in the last year and some, first as an expectant father and then as a father to their son, now expecting again with this second baby on the way… He had so much love in him for these children, for her, for their family, and whenever she saw it, felt it… It was like a rush of peace. She had nothing to worry about. He was here, and he loved her and their children more than anything in the world.

"So, I know Pappy Joe isn't doing the mall Santa thing these days, but do you think he'd dress up for a picture with Elliott? I'd feel weird taking him to whoever's out there now? Like we were cheating on the best Santa we know," she grinned.

"For the Sprout, I think we could get him out of retirement," Lucas chuckled, looping his arms around her.

"Less of a lineup, too," Maya stated, leaning into his hold. "I've been there with my parents more than once, it's…"

She stalled upon hearing her phone ring back across the hall, and they both passed from the nursery into their room when the noise pulled Elliott from his nap and put him in touch with his inner bullhorn. Lucas went and picked him up while Maya answered the call. It was her father, Kermit.

"Hey, Dad, we were just…"

"Maya, help!" It was not her father on the other end. Instead, she was met with the frightened voice of her little sister.

"Eliza, what's wrong?"

"Dad fell down, he won't wake up!"

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	64. This Was Not Our Vision, And Yet

_Chapter 64_  
_This Was Not Our Vision And Yet_

Sitting outside the doctor's office, Maya couldn't quite keep herself from slowly letting her hand run along the curve of her belly as she breathed in, breathed out… It was her own calming exercise, as she waited for her father to come out and tell her what he'd learned. She hadn't been able to shake the feeling, in the week since his latest incident, that this would not just be a bad one but _the_ bad one, the point of no return.

As her hand kept moving along, it almost kept time, like the ticking of a clock, along with her breaths. Each tick felt like an echo of that afternoon, when Eliza had called.

Abigail had been out with Sam and Cara, to shop for the little kids' Christmas presents, while their grandmother had been visiting with some of her new friends. This left Kermit alone with Eliza and Wyatt. As the boy had been up in his room, playing cowboys versus superheroes with his toys, Eliza had been in the kitchen with their father, looking up ideas for treats in her upcoming sleepover with classmates. Kermit had gotten up to check something in the pantry, while Eliza looked to the bright photos in the recipe book. The motion had just managed to catch her attention out of the corner of her eye, and she'd looked just in time to see him drop to the floor.

Rather than scream, the eight-year-old had gone and tried to shake him awake. When this hadn't worked, she'd pulled the phone from his pocket and called up her big sister for help, as she would be closer by than anyone else at the moment. She'd been terrified, but she'd shown surprising control and maturity in how she'd handled the whole situation.

Leaving Elliott with Pappy Joe, Maya and Lucas had left the house on their way to the Hart home. While Maya had stayed on the line with Eliza, trying to help her check for vitals, Lucas had first called Abigail, and then 911. Soon, he'd given the dispatcher the Harts' home number, so they might get in touch with Eliza directly.

As soon as they'd arrived at the house, Lucas had gone upstairs to find Wyatt. The four-year-old had remained entirely unaware of anything going wrong. Having no choice but to burst his bubble, Lucas had worked to carefully explain to his young brother-in-law that his father needed to go to the hospital, that there was something going on but they didn't know what. After this, he'd carried him out of the house, never stopping in the kitchen so he wouldn't have to see anything that might stay with him. The two of them sat on the porch, out of the way, where Lucas asked Wyatt to tell him about what he'd been playing up in his room. As confused as he'd been, Wyatt had soon started to tell him all about the cowboys fighting against the superheroes, not knowing that they were heroes, naturally.

Meanwhile, Maya had gone for the kitchen. As she'd approached, she hadn't even set eyes on her father that there were arms around her midsection, and a small blond head rested against her belly.

"It's alright, hey, I'm here, I've got you," she'd promised, pressing a kiss to Eliza's head.

Kermit was just starting to come around when Maya got a look of him, laid out there on the floor. Eliza had taken a cushion from one of the chairs and put it under his head. He'd locked eyes with his firstborn, and whatever awareness he had of what had just happened became at once very clear. She must have worn it right there in her eyes. Of all the repeats from her first pregnancy she might have wanted or not wanted to see, this echo of the day he'd shown up on her doorstep… Oh, she could have really done without it.

The paramedics had arrived, and they'd examined Kermit while Maya and Eliza stepped back. Maya had wanted to send her outside, with Lucas and Wyatt, but Eliza refused to leave their father. She'd stayed there, with her big sister's arms around her, until they had him loaded into the ambulance. In that same moment, Abigail had arrived. Sam and Cara had rushed out of the car almost before it had stopped completely, hurrying to see their father. A number of neighbors were standing around now, too, and the scene finally dispersed once the ambulance went away, with Abigail climbing in to follow her husband. This left Maya and Lucas to pack up the kids and follow behind.

They'd kept him two nights before sending him back home. Since then, he'd been forced on bed rest, though he wouldn't have given much resistance even if he could. Every day since, Maya had been there, with Elliott, almost morning to night. Lucas was in the midst of finals, so his having the house almost to himself was not the worst thing, except for the reason of it. It was already difficult to focus on the task at hand when he missed his son and worried for his wife, and their unborn child… The stress weighed on her, he could see it every morning when she left, every night when she returned…

Their house looked so jolly, with the tree and the decorations, but they might as well have been absent for how little Maya seemed to see them anymore. He did what he could to support her, to do what needed to be done while also extending as much as possible to bring her some peace, that she might take care of herself and the baby at the same time as she cared for her father.

Maya spent most of her days sitting on the couch with her father, as they watched television. On the whole, there was nothing physically strenuous about it. Kermit knew she was going to want to be there with him, and she could see how much that knowledge meant to him, but he also did not want her to overdo anything, for the baby's sake. Elizabeth Hart was of that same mind, as she saw to her son and to her granddaughter's needs, insisting on Maya's remaining seated unless she absolutely needed to rise.

She put so much of a strong face all day long though, so by the end of it, as little as she'd really had to do, she would head home feeling spent. She would spend the rest of her evenings sitting quietly with Elliott, taking comfort from his warmth and nearness, and with Lucas, who could hold her and make her feel safe and home like no one else in the world.

All these days, it had felt as though she'd been on a holding pattern, waiting for this day, waiting for her father's appointment with his doctor, so they might get a better idea of what was happening to him. Once they knew that, well… they could figure out their next steps.

Maya remained sitting there, her hand moving up and down the curve of her belly, trying to tell herself that this wouldn't be exactly what she was thinking, what she had been thinking all week. All around her, the clinic was festively decorated, with a hanging scent like pine trees, and cinnamon… There was the faint sound of Christmas music coming from the receptionist's desk, behind her, and she had never felt the slightest dislike for the familiar tunes the way she did in that moment.

When her father walked out of the doctor's office, he came and sat down next to her before she had time to realize he was out, to get up and go to him. She looked at him, words escaping her. _What did he say? Last week, what did it mean?_ It was all right there, but she couldn't string so much as a syllable together. He wasn't having much better luck. All he could do was to put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close enough as to press a kiss to the side of her head.

She let out a very small whimper that sounded like 'no,' and when the hold turned into a full hug, it really felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She knew what it meant, she did, she knew, but she couldn't accept it, she could never…

"Dad…" her voice trembled as it manifested itself. She turned in her chair, so she might hug him back, knowing he was left as shaken up by this as she was, if not more. Her head was a jumble of thoughts, too many for her to sort out but all the same feeling as though she understood every strand of it somewhere.

Some of it could have felt selfish, if she didn't know he would be thinking the same thing. _I just got you back…_ That was the big one, that one and… and… and her kids. Elliott, and the baby inside her belly, and whoever else might come along after that… Without so many details, she just knew that her son would not remember his grandfather, and the Bee might not even meet him, if… if… Oh, this was too much, she couldn't…

By the time either of them had been able to release one another and rise to leave the clinic, Maya had texted Shawn, asking for him to come over and drive them back. She just couldn't do it. He didn't even have to ask why. He knew the appointment was today, and the request spoke volumes of the results. He showed up, coming out of a cab, to find them sitting on a bench outside the hospital. Maya's fathers had briefly shared a look before Shawn had seen to embracing his daughter.

Kermit insisted for Maya to go back home for the rest of the day. He understood that she wanted to stay with him, but he felt it would be better for her to go and take things easy, as much as she could. He would be alright, he told her. What she took this to mean was that he didn't want to air out the news at home, not yet, and sooner or later someone would look at her and they would know something was wrong.

"Go on, go home. Hug Elliott for me."

So, Shawn had taken them to the Hart house, and while Maya stayed in the car, he'd seen Kermit inside, into his mother's care. When he'd gone back to the car, it had been to find his daughter quietly weeping, trying to steady her breath as her hands lay over her belly, so protectively as to think the baby was the one in need of comforting. Likely knowing better than to think that she might have been righted in a matter of minutes, Shawn started up the car again and taken them back to the house on the lane.

The ride was a quiet one, save for the sound of Maya's crying, her breaths coming in, going out… Maybe Kermit had had a point about sending her back. What more could she do today?

As they'd come up the lane and turned on toward the house, she was down to sniffles, otherwise too spent. She could see Pappy Joe on the porch, and even as she thought how he'd have to guess about Kermit from the fact that Shawn was driving her, she realized he had to be out here waiting because he already knew. Shawn could easily have texted him from the car and she wouldn't have had any idea, as dazed as she'd been.

"Is, uh… Is Lucas back from university yet?" she asked, her voice a bit faded, as she got out of the car and Pappy Joe came down the steps to meet her.

"Not yet, no," he told her, folding his arms around her in such a way that made her want to stand there that way for a good long while.

"Is Elliott asleep?" she asked. They moved into the house now, the three of them, and she really just wanted her baby boy in her arms, wanted to see him smile up at her…

"Last I checked, yes. He's in good hands, upstairs in the nursery," Pappy Joe told her.

"Maya, about tonight…" Shawn asked, before she could start up the stairs. She turned to him. "I can let your mother we'll do this another time, and the Friars, too." It took her a second to remember. Today was Lucas' last final for the semester, the last one before he started in his new major in the winter. They'd been planning this dinner, his family and hers, before her father's fall, before… today… It had just been unfortunate that the two events should fall on the same day, neither side able to change it. Kermit and Abigail had already bowed out, after what had happened, but the Hunter-Harts and the Friars were due over in a few hours.

"No…" she blinked, looking back at him. "No, I want them to come, I..."

"Okay, you got it, kid," Shawn nodded at once. He came up and hugged her one more time, kissed the side of her face before heading on for home.

As she climbed up to go and find her son, Maya wondered briefly if she had made the right call or not. Maybe they should have cancelled the dinner, opting instead for a peaceful night, just the four of them here. Really, no one would have blamed her for it, not her parents or her in-laws, not even Lucas, who would be coming home at last on break until the new year only to find a somber house waiting for him… somber wife… But then when Shawn had mentioned cancelling, the first thing she'd thought was how badly she wanted to see them all, to have them around her. It might not be the night they had expected, but she needed them, and there was no doubt in her mind that they would want to be there for her, too.

It wasn't until she approached the nursery that Pappy Joe's words came back to her. She could hear someone humming, singing very lightly, she guessed, to baby Elliott off in the nursery. Pappy Joe had said that his great grandson was in good hands. Maya had no idea who he had been referring to, had barely registered the fact that he'd told her they had a guest, but then she walked into the nursery. For the second time in a very short period, she would be surprised by the presence of Nadine Zhu inside her house. In this case, it was her friend and former bandmate sitting in the rocking chair, holding her son like there could not have been anything more satisfying in the world.

"Nadine?" Maya spoke softly, and her friend lifted a smile toward her which all too soon faltered, as she saw her blotchy post-cry face.

"Hey, I…" Nadine moved to rise, recalling Elliott in her arms and adjusting her plan. She got up and went to set him down in the new crib nearby before moving up to her friend. Maya caught her up in a good, strong hug. She'd gotten so many of these in the last hour or two, and none of them had been unappreciated. "Are you okay? What ha…" Going off the way she grew silence all at once, Maya guessed she had been told where her friend had been going that day, and from there the rest of the equation had fallen into place. "How bad is it?" she asked, sounding like she'd switched on at least part of her med student brain.

"The worst," Maya could only tell her. She didn't have the details to share, and frankly she wasn't sure she was ready to know them any time soon. Nadine's hug tightened just a bit, careful not to press on her friend's belly. They pulled away only as Elliott started to cry, and Maya instantly went and picked him up. "Hey, Sprout… no, it's alright, I've got you…" she breathed, rocking him gently. He clung to her so much that even if he was too young to know what was going on, she could easily believe that he felt her distress echoed on to him, and he gave and required as much comfort as she required and gave in return. Her little man was enough his father's son that she could believe it.

Maya, with Elliott and Nadine both, ended up across the hall, where the two old friends sat on the bed together, the baby falling asleep once again in his mother's arms. She wasn't ready to go and talk about what she'd learned earlier, so Maya asked the only other question she could.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Nadine. "I thought you weren't flying over until just a couple days before Christmas."

"No, uh, that was the plan, yeah, but I sort of changed those… like, a lot," Nadine explained, looking like she'd forgotten all of this herself, once Maya had come with her news about her father.

"What's going on?"

"This was kind of a big ask already before you told me about your father, so really I can find another way, I don't want to…"

"Nadine, what is it, just tell me," Maya reached out to grasp her friend's hand.

"Can I stay here? Until 'a couple days before Christmas' when I _was_ supposed to get here and go to my parents' for the holidays?" Nadine looked back up to her friend with pleading eyes bordered with something like shame.

"They don't know you're here, do they?" Maya slowly came to ask, as it came together for her. Nadine shook her head. "Why don't you want them to know you're already here?" She hesitated, like she didn't want to burden her. "Are you okay?" Maya squeezed her hand, unable to bear the idea that someone else close to her could have been in trouble.

"I… I'm moving back," Nadine revealed. Maya stared back, stunned. "I'm not quitting school, but I'm leaving the program back in Boston and transferring here."

"You are?" Maya asked. She struggled not to leave all the power to the side of her presently feeling genuinely happy about something for the first time in about a week. "But why?"

"I just… The last few months were just hell back there, on my own," Nadine admitted. "And then I was here, for Thanksgiving… I was so happy to be back here, when I got on the plane back to Boston, I was in tears almost the whole flight." She was tearing up now, just recalling it. "The morning after I got back to my apartment, I sent an e-mail to my advisor. I was so sure I'd have to wait until the fall, but she said that someone owed her a favor, and she believed I had enough promise as a doctor to cash it in."

"That's good," Maya smiled, following the ups and downs of her friend's story. "And your parents?"

"We got into it when I was here last time, about Boston, and Zay…" Nadine bowed her head. "If I go back to them now, I'm looking at a three-week-long migraine and the absolute worst Christmas and…" She stalled at once, catching herself and looking back to Maya with apologies in her eyes.

"You're more than welcome here," Maya squeezed her hand.

"I came early to try and find an apartment. I'm hoping to find something before I let them know I'm in town, even if it's just temporary until I find another one that's less 'whatever's available a week before Christmas.'"

"You can't just take some random place, no way. You can stay until you find the good one," Maya declared with more certainty than she'd expected herself able to muster.

"Are you sure?" Nadine asked, feeling her own surge of happy relief challenged with the ever present weight of this day.

"Like you wouldn't believe. Now, please, just tell your family you're here?" she pleaded. "I know they'll be glad to have you back and… and you never know," she breathed, looking to her sleeping son, thinking of her father. "You should take all the time you have with them while you can."

She took Elliott down the stairs, allowing Nadine the liberty and privacy of her room to call home. Pappy Joe was in the kitchen now, getting started on the night's meal, soon to be attended by the two families joining their household. Pulling his knitted blanket from the couch, Maya wrapped Elliott in that extra warmth, even as she pulled on her coat and kept him nearby. She needed to get some air. Left alone to her thoughts, it really felt for a moment like she'd forgotten how to breathe. She'd been walking along, taking in the December chill for a few minutes already, when she saw Lucas' car coming along the road. It dislodged a sob from her throat for how glad she was to know that he was home again.

Like Shawn before, and Pappy Joe, and even Nadine, it did not take any explanation for Lucas to understand what was going on. He had spent the last few hours – knowing that Kermit's appointment would have passed – twisting every last drop of concentration he had left toward writing his last final as quickly and correctly as he was able to, all so that he could get home as soon as possible. How many times he had almost texted her or called home to his grandfather to ask how it had gone… he couldn't count anymore. And now he arrived, his semester good and over, and there was his wife, pacing the grounds with the baby bundled up close, and that look in her eyes like she was a little girl all over again, and the world had thrown her for a loop.

Whatever they'd learned at the clinic, it was bad. It was so very bad.

In the space of time it took for him to get out of the car and walk over to her, Maya's eyes were just brimming over with tears. Lucas wrapped one arm around her waist, the other around her shoulders. He held her close, with both of their children in between them, one outside and one inside. Whatever happened next, there really wasn't anything left to force him and divide his attention. His whole world now would be about being there for her, to be there for her father, and her stepmother, her siblings, and her grandmother, as they went through this next step in their journey.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	65. Last Christmas

_Chapter 65_  
_Last Christmas_

Waking up on Christmas Eve morning, Maya's first awareness of the waking world came in the form of her son's babbling sounds. She opened her eyes and there he sat in Lucas' lap, prodding at his arm and possibly trying to get his attention. The moment she saw him, saw them both, her face eased into such a smile. She could just about guess that Lucas had come and sat there after doing his morning routine with Elliott, intending to greet her when she woke as well… and then he'd dozed off. Elliott remained secure in his hold, the only one awake in that bed until Maya had come around, too.

It was really too bad that Lucas had fallen asleep, as she just knew he had been eager to see the look on her face when she saw their boy sitting there, in the outfit Grandpa Shawn and Nana Katy had gotten him, a perfect little Santa's Elf, down to the pointy shoes and the hat with pointy ears, which surprisingly did not disagree with the near seven-month-old to the point where he'd try to push it off his head. He was instead perfectly content, and when he saw his mother's smiling face, he was a spritely looking boy, with a smile of his own and some little hands reaching out to her.

"Hello, my holiday sprout," she carefully dislodged him from his father's protective hold and brought him to sit up on her legs once she'd moved into a seated position. It was still nothing short of a great wonder for her to see that he had grown to this stage, that he was getting more mobile by the day. He'd been keeping all of them on their toes from the day he'd started crawling.

This had started to happen, of all times, just a couple of days after they'd gotten the news about Kermit. She hadn't been out to see him since that day, as she knew better than to think she'd be able to keep herself together. They didn't want to tell the kids, not until after the holidays, and she respected that. At the same time, the last week and the aftermath of that appointment had just left her in such a state that she had no choice but to stay home and take things easy, for her sake but for the baby's sake most of all.

The dinner for Lucas' end of semester had been complicated at best. Obviously, everyone who showed up knew what was going on, the adults at least. Tom and Melinda Friar had arrived, and they'd both checked in with her in turn, embraced her and asked how she was doing. No one had asked if she was okay, because of course she was not. When Shawn had returned with Katy and the kids, the first thing they had to do was pull in their most 'everything is fine' state for the twins and MJ. Lucas had been a big help in that, and Nadine, and Pappy Joe… All of them had gotten in on it, allowing Katy to go with her eldest daughter into the kitchen, bringing little Alex along. He was not two months yet, still so small, and oh how he reminded Maya of her own son.

She'd had herself a good cry when Lucas had come back, and he'd held her through every second of it, but after that she'd just needed to keep it together, to make it through the evening that was meant to be for him, and their families… What it had really come down to was something like a play, where they all knew they were supposed to be having themselves a happy little family dinner, but deep down all they could think about was the news about Kermit, and how it had to be affecting Maya and the rest of the Harts. It had not been a late night for any of them, and everyone had gone home shortly after the meal was over. Maya had gone to bed not half an hour later.

The timing for Lucas to have finished his classes, as horrible as it sounded, could not have been more appropriate. Now with his finals behind him, he was able to devote his attention entirely to his wife, their son, and their unborn child. The day after the news, this had meant keeping a close eye on Maya. He did not know just how deeply the news would affect her as time progressed, but he was preparing to deal with all of it. That first morning, he'd let her sleep in, or at least he'd let her stay in bed, knowing at some point that she was awake, just not doing a whole lot to show it. The last week had finally come crashing down on her, and she needed the rest, so he encouraged it. Tag teaming with Nadine, they would check in on her from time to time and, when she showed she was ready for it, they'd brought her breakfast up.

Nadine being there could not have happened at a better time. Even though they would have preferred for her not to be struggling so much as to decide to pack up her things and move back from Boston, the fact was that her presence helped in getting Maya to wake up, and talk… It was much easier for her to play the distraction game than for Lucas to do it, and even Pappy Joe. And Elliott just loved her so much, too.

Elliott… He'd been such a bright spot for Maya. He always was that, of course, but right now she really just felt it on another level. Maybe it helped that he was so little still. Without a doubt, even if it meant that he would not remember his grandfather, the one saving grace was that he wouldn't remember this part either, the sadness, the eventual loss… He wouldn't have to feel any of it, and that mattered a lot to her, mattered enough that she'd do her best and not allow any of her own distress to be so present around him, not to let it be leeched from her and on to him. It wasn't about burying her emotions, because those were still absolutely present, all jumbled and hard to pull apart. But then it wasn't as hard as she might believe, to shift her moods, when he'd be there with her.

Two days after the appointment and the news, they had been visited by Sam and Cara. Specifically, Cara had wanted to come bad enough that she'd looked like she was about to sneak off again, so Sam had suggested he go with her. After having their big sister over at the house every day for so long, her absence had not gone unnoticed. They'd given as close to the truth in telling them that Maya was very tired and needed to get some rest for the baby. Really, showing up when they did was about what they should have expected. They wanted to see their sister and know that she was okay.

"Hey…" Maya had smiled at once, seeing those two in the doorway. She'd been sitting in bed, quietly getting back into her knitting as a way of keeping herself busy and relaxed while Elliott napped in his crib. She'd been so happy to see her siblings though, and after setting needles and yarn aside she'd waved them over. Cara had been the first to climb on to the bed, folding herself into her sister's waiting arms without much convincing. Sam had come around to the other side and done the same, his head receiving a kiss just as his little sister's had done a second before. "I have missed you guys so much," Maya breathed, taken with a tremor of emotion for having them back after those difficult days.

"Are you okay?" Cara stared up at her with those clear blue eyes of hers wide and concerned.

"I'll be alright," Maya assured her. "I think my body had been trying to tell me to take a break and I finally had to listen."

"What about the baby?" Cara went on.

"Baby's good," Maya smiled. "Moves around sometimes, if you want to try and feel it." Her siblings didn't need much prompting to reach their hands to her belly in search of movement. Whether or not the baby would oblige, only time would tell. Other telling things were their two faces. Cara, though she had been reassured as to her older sister and future niece or nephew, still carried a whole lot of concern in her young brow, and she didn't have to explain where it came from. As for Sam, who had not said a word since they'd arrived, he had that knowing look about him like he knew very well that it wasn't just exhaustion keeping her down like this.

After a bit of catching up, confirming to her that Kermit and Abigail had not shared the news with any of the kids, Sam had gotten curious over the knitting, showing that similar artistic curiosity Maya had, so she'd set about giving him some starter information. Meanwhile, Elliott had woken up, and Auntie Cara had jumped at the chance to go and play with her nephew. She'd carefully lifted him out of his crib before sitting on the ground with him, picking up a few of his favorite small books from nearby, so he might get a look at them, feel the different textures inside. Maya had just been preparing to hand the needles over to her brother so he might try a bit when Cara gasped.

"Maya, look! Look!" she smiled, pointing to the ground. She couldn't see from where she was, and it took her a few seconds to get up out of the bed and move to see what her sister was going on about, but once she'd gotten there…

"Lucas! Lucas, get up here!" she called out. "Lucas!"

The barrelling of feet on the steps told her she had definitely been heard, maybe not as innocently as she'd intended. Looking back down to the ground, smiling, she carefully moved around her siblings, both of them having seemingly materialized their phones and now recording the whole thing, until she could take in her baby boy, pulling himself along on his arms, almost scooting about as he advanced toward his target, which might have been one of his stuffed toys spotted from his vantage point, just under his changing table.

"What…" Lucas started to ask as he and Nadine both appeared at once. There were slower steps to be heard, suggesting Pappy Joe was also on his way and going as fast as his old injury would allow. The misinterpretation of Maya's call was soon realized, as they spotted Elliott, carrying along. At once, their faces were taken with so much happiness, Lucas especially. He genuinely looked like he was about to cry, even more so when Elliott turned his head and, having spotted him, adjusted his course, the better to head in his direction. The young father approached slowly, crouching in the path of his son and watching in awe until he'd gotten near enough and could be picked up.

He'd been showing signs of working toward this for a few days, but with everything that was happening, with Kermit, it still felt like they'd had no preparation for witnessing this development. Now it had happened, they'd seen it, immortalized it from two different angles… It was easily the most wonderful thing to have happened in a while, and it had done just… ridiculous amounts of good to Maya's heart. It could have been bittersweet, seeing her baby boy growing up like this, but in the end there really was not a drop of bitterness, and instead double the amount of sweetness. Facing her father's impending death, she was just lifted by her son's expanding life.

It had been just about a week now, and it had changed so much of their lives, having to factor in Elliott's new talents and making sure as best they could that nothing would be available to incite him toward hurting himself by accident. They were always watching him, wherever he went. They let him go and crawl around as much as they could, let him explore. That was something fascinating to see in and of itself, that he had curiosity. He was a child, a baby with a whole world of new things to find, sure, so it would be all too natural, but at the same time, he wasn't just a child, he was his parents' child, and oh how much curiosity his mother could have passed on to him…

The videos of Elliott's first 'trip' had been shared with every last grandparent, great-grandparent, aunt, uncle, or cousin on his family tree. On Lucas' suggestion, thinking it might be something else to brighten his wife's days, they had not simply sent it out to everyone. They _had_ shared it, but not until after they'd shown it in person to the various grandparents. To see their reactions in person, the gasps of surprise and the blooming smiles… It was kind of everything they could ask for.

Now it was Christmas Eve, and Maya was eternally grateful for Lucas getting Elliott in elf mode, first thing in the morning. She would need this small reminder, telling her what this day was supposed to be, this one and the next. In a lot of ways, it would be impossible not to remember that it was to be Kermit Hart's last Christmas, just as it would be his family's last Christmas with him. They didn't want it to be shaped that way, especially not for the kids. They wanted the memories to be wonderful, wanted them to be able to look back on this time, when the grief of that loss would come and claim them, and help them hold on to how happy their father had been to be there with them.

It would be Kermit's last, but it would also be Elliott's first, and that… that might have been the thing to help them build these days into something good. It would be his first, and their first with him.

"You know, last year, at this time, you were inside my belly," Maya whispered to her little elf sprout as he sat there while she held his hands. "Right here," she nodded down to herself, "Right where your little brother or sister is right now. And your aunts, the twins, when they opened all their presents, they would take the bows and stick them right on top of my shirt, where my belly was. You were a gift, the best one," she smiled. Elliott responded by twisting his little body about with a bit of a squeal, which made her laugh and scoop him up closer, the better to press kisses on his squishy cheeks.

"Wha…" Lucas woke with a start, patting at himself in search of the missing babe, only to find him there, laughing under the peppering of his mother's kisses. "Hey…" Lucas smiled.

"Morning," Maya smiled back. "Don't tell anyone, but our kid might be the cutest in the world," she declared, rocking him about in her arms. "Any chance we can have him work this look a little longer? It's the ears… and the pointy shoes…"

"Won't see me complaining," Lucas laughed now, seeing how the outfit had left her so completely brightened on this morning. It would almost be like a shield for her to carry through this day and the next. It might not protect her from all the blows, as they tried to keep a steady course through their goals, for Kermit and Abigail and the kids, but it would catch a lot of them, and that was all they could ask for.

The twenty-fourth was to be their quiet, home edition of Christmas, just the three of them and Pappy Joe, with Nadine spending most of the day with them before heading to her parents' for the evening. It had been of a rocky few days with the family, with the Zhu parents showing some issues with their eldest daughter's decisions. Nadine had soldiered on the whole time, in some ways urged on by Maya's advice for her not to hide the fact that she was in town, for her to hold on to this time with her parents when she had the chance. By the time Christmas Eve rolled around, it really felt like they had brushed aside a lot of the things standing in their way, and they were looking forward to the next day.

They had embraced the couch, all of them, as though the rest of them had decided to make a show of solidarity for Maya's needing to take it easy. Whether there was an underlying layer of their leading by example, she would not go and attempt to catch them out. She really appreciated their day of peace, as she sat sandwiched between Lucas and Nadine, all of them with their feet on the coffee table and covered with the same blanket. Elliott would be passed from one to the other after a little while, spending most of his time in one attempt or another to touch his pointy shoes. They'd been sure for a moment that he was trying to get them off, only when he'd been obliged he'd immediately started wailing, only calming down again once the shoes had been returned on to his feet.

"This is going to come back to bite us later, isn't it?" Lucas asked, while Maya worked to hush the baby down from his sniffles, rubbing his back and keeping him close.

"We just need to take them next time he goes to sleep. He'll be fine," she assured him, leaning her head to his shoulder as his arm was already around hers. It was easily one of his favorite memories of that first holiday with their son. It also made him think back to the previous year, when he had been there inside her belly, as their Bee now was. He remembered how they'd both been so eager to meet this little person they had created, to get to do… exactly what they were doing now. The unexpected bonus of the Bee now left him with brand new anticipation, thinking of what the following year would have in store for them as a family.

With Nadine off for dinner with her family, the evening had been that much quieter, and knowing how big the next day was bound to be, they had not stayed up all that late.

"I can't wait until he's old enough to do Christmas morning," Lucas smiled, looking into the crib where Elliott was slowly but surely losing his staring contest and dozing off.

"I don't know, I'm kind of okay with him being too little yet," Maya hummed, standing next to him.

"Yeah…" Lucas reached down, gently brushing at their boy's blond hair. They could really do with him being this way for as long as possible. It would all become so different once they had both kids to look after together. This, right here, this was good.

Before they knew it, Christmas morning was upon them. This time around, Maya was the first one awake instead of the last. There was just a bit of chill in the air, and looking through the window she could see the skies had chosen to gift them with just enough of a snowfall as to be seen… She'd been so unsure of how she would feel this morning, with everything that had been going on, and everything this day would have to be, but now… Oh, it would be difficult, she didn't doubt it, but at the same time… It was Christmas, her son's first, and her father's last… No… Her father's first, if only, in Texas with them, and with her since so very long ago. They had that to cherish, and they would not squander it.

"Hey, hey, good morning," she whispered, having risen quietly out of bed and walked up to the crib to find Elliott awake and staring up at the mobile hanging overhead. She became a much more interesting sight though, and he didn't have to reach his arms up too long before she'd lifted him up into her own. "Merry Christmas, Elliott," Maya smiled, rocking him about as she moved closer to the window and looked outside. "You just wait, this day is going to be pretty special," she promised, ignoring the fact that he'd have no recollection of it himself. They would tell him all about it when he grew up, and they'd show him the pictures, the videos… In the end, it would almost be like he did remember.

Lucas woke up right about then, and to have his first sight be his wife standing by the window, their son in her arms, their second child existing within that rounded belly… It was just as wonderful of a place for this day to start as it had been for her.

"Merry Christmas," he spoke, drawing Maya to turn around.

"Hey," she smiled. "Merry Christmas," she replied, walking back toward the bed. "Want to go wish your dad a merry Christmas, too?" she asked Elliott before 'flying' him down to where his father could receive him and wish him one, too.

"Did you hear Santa last night?" Lucas asked in a cheerful whisper, pleased for the laughter it earned him out of his son.

Even though they would be heading out very early, the better to make the rounds and finally end up at the Hart house, they had their boy's first Christmas morning to experience, the first in this house, too. So, everyone gathered downstairs to take in the small bounty waiting under the tree, delivered personally – on his insistence – by Santa Claus himself. Elliott may not have heard him pass, but his parents absolutely woke up, briefly, at the sound of the creaking floor and stairs as Pappy Joe went on by.

It had been very tempting to go a little crazy with presents, this being Elliott's first Christmas, but in the end they had shown remarkable self-control. It wasn't so hard, really: the grandparents would be the worst offenders on that front, no matter how much Lucas and Maya both told them not to overdo it. Elliott had all the toys and books his near seven-month-old self could ever need. If they had any doubt that some of them would have had trouble resisting the urge, finding the number of presents put forth by 'Santa Joe' that morning was an all too telling starter.

Their next stop, at the Hunter Hart house, had followed the trend. Katy had at least looked a little sheepish about it, while Shawn had just fully assumed himself in this bit of grandfatherly excess. In what was a very welcome echo of the previous year, the little Hunters had gone and welcomed baby Bee into the fold by planting several more bows upon their sister's belly.

After this, they had made their way to the Matthews' house, where they were to be met with their friends out of Houston. It had been meant to be all of them and the ones back in New York, too, but somewhere between now and Thanksgiving, the families had decided they'd liked being up north so much with the previous holiday that they wanted to experience this one there, too. So, they would have to find time to put in a call with them, so they might exchange well wishes.

By the time they made it to the Friars', it was just about lunch time, which turned into a brunch, after passing through the new load of gifts from the grandparents. Elliott the elf had barely spent more than a few minutes out of his Granny Mel's arms, as she just could not get enough of his outfit, especially when he'd be set down on the ground and his crawling around would be tuned to the bells on his pointed shoes.

The whirlwind of the day so far had finally landed them at the Hart house. They would have loved to spend so much more time with the people they had seen so far today, but then everyone understood their desire to spend the bulk of the day with Kermit and Abigail and the rest of the family out there. They had Granny Lizzie, and they had Aunt Luna and her daughters, they had Sam, Cara, Eliza, Wyatt, and now they had Maya, Lucas, and little Elliott. No one could say how many times they'd looked to Kermit and found him with that smile on his face. How long would he have been imagining a Christmas like this, with his mother, his sister, all his children… It would be the one and only, but no one could take it from him wherever he went, however long he had left.

The kids had a great day. It was easier and easier to tell that Sam knew his father was dying, but like his older sister, he was determined for this day to be a good one, and they could not have achieved this without him. The one who struggled the most in keeping up appearances was Luna Hart, who couldn't help but look at her big brother and start to well up. Their mother, Elizabeth, was not doing too much better at the prospect of burying her son, her firstborn, but she was handling herself a whole lot better. She was here, when she might not have been, and she would take all the time she had left with him.

"This is for you," Kermit told Maya, when the two of them managed to get some time together, sitting on the couch, while the kids had gone out to play, under Lucas' supervision. Abigail was nearby, humming the little elf babe into a nap. Maya looked to the box sitting before her. He'd had Luna bring it over, didn't trust himself to carry it now, with how his strength would waver. There was no way of saying anything like 'you didn't have to.' Everything he did today was important to him, and so they followed along. As much as her time relaxing back home had helped, now Maya was back here, looking to what would be the thing her father wanted her to have on this day, and she didn't know if she was ready for it. She started to wonder how many more big occasions they would have left.

"Both of us together, okay?" she told Kermit, reaching over to hand him her own present. The way he looked at it, still wrapped… He was having some emotions over this, as much as she did with his gift.

"Together," he agreed, even as she could see he took his time in unwrapping, busy as he was watching her as she unwrapped her own. "I've got some things up in the attic," he told her. "For Elliott, and the baby, and you… I tried to make it so, if you and Lucas have more kids after this, they'll be covered, too. There's notes, you'll know what the kids' things are, so you can decide when to give them… Abigail will help you with those, when the time comes." Her hands had stilled on the wrappings, looking back at him. She knew he would be looking to prepare for the future, but this… It was already so much. "There's more, for Sam, and Cara, and Eliza and Wyatt… If you could hold on to those for me…"

"Of course, yes," Maya nodded, no need to consider.

The present sitting before her could have been described as Kermit's contribution to her budding baking dreams and to the business she was looking to get off the ground while she was home with Elliott and the Bee. Everything inside the great big box could be filed under 'things I wouldn't even bother looking at for the time being, as I am so, _so_ far from being able to afford them, especially with one and soon two small children to provide for.' He didn't have to do it, but he'd done it, so he might look after her future in this small way, when he hadn't done it for so long. Maya had embraced him, giving him many thanks as she tried to control her tears.

Kermit had finished opening his own gift next, and while it was much smaller than the first, it did not lack for impact. When Maya had started knitting again, she'd been all set to churn out any number of items for the Bee, and some for Elliott as well. Instead, she'd set herself to work on a great big blanket, not for a small child but a tall man to cover himself with to ward off chills. She'd chosen the colors and the pattern with care, and the result was what she presented to him now. She wanted him to have this thing she had made with her own two hands, to keep him warm and comfortable whether she was by his side or not.

After what felt like a very charged but also very memorable day, Maya, Lucas, and the sleeping elf were homebound again, after stopping over at the Zhu house to pick up Nadine.

"I was sure I'd have to sit on the roof or something, with all the grandparent gifts," she teased.

"I have to go back and pick them up another day when there's no one else in the car," Lucas informed her.

"Oh…" she blinked.

"He might have to make a few trips," Maya added, looking back at her with a face that said 'they really tried, I think.'

Driving up the lane and toward the house, they noticed right away a rental van sitting in the driveway. It was impossible to resist the joke of this being the grandparents' work, to aid them in moving all the presents, but then as the car turned on to the path, the lights flashed to show someone was sitting in the driver's seat. Whoever it was, having seen them coming now, hopped out of the van, and before they could wonder who was sitting here, waiting outside their house on Christmas night, the headlights illuminated the familiar face of one Isaiah Babineaux. Maya turned in her seat to look at Nadine, who in turn was looking straight ahead to her nervous looking ex-boyfriend standing in the melting snow. The van behind him now suggested a clear message: he had left New York, returned to Austin to stay, just as she'd done.

Nadine got out of the car, while Lucas and Maya shared a look, unsure whether they should follow. They watched Nadine as she slowly approached, and as she and Zay shared some words they couldn't hear. The next thing they knew, Nadine had all but vaulted into his arms, and Zay caught her quick, looking as though all his nerves had faded off of him.

"I'm not going to say it…" Maya spoke, her voice trembling in what felt like the flipside of her emotional flares back around Halloween.

"Want me to do it?" Lucas smiled back at her. She nodded rapidly. "It's a Christmas miracle," he reached for her hand, which she squeezed in gratitude.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	66. Begin Again

_Chapter 66_  
_Begin Again_

"You know, I'd love to let them have all the time they need right now, but I really need to go to the bathroom right now…" Maya turned to Lucas as they sat in the car still, watching/not watching as Nadine and Zay stood just a few feet ahead of them outside, holding to one another and talking still as though the whole of the world had disappeared other than them. "And Elliott's bound to wake up any second now," Maya looked into the back, reaching her hand as she'd done plenty of times now, to check on their son.

"We could probably walk right by them and they wouldn't notice," Lucas suggested, pointing toward their friends. Maya turned her head again and found the reunited pair were now good and locked in a kiss and not looking to come up for air any time soon.

"Well… good," Maya blinked, trying not to laugh. "You take the baby, and I'll just…" she motioned toward the house so as to say 'I really, _really_ need to go."

"Done and done," Lucas nodded, and they were off. Opening the car doors as quietly as possible, they climbed out, and while Lucas worked to get Elliott out of the back without waking him, Maya kept a wide circle around their friends so as not to disturb them before veering toward the porch steps and climbing as fast and silently as her needs would allow.

As soon as she had the door open, she kicked off her boots and started up the stairs, mentally swearing over how far the bathroom was and distracting herself from this by trying to think how likely and feasible it would be that they could get a third bathroom built on to the house, on the ground floor, so they would not have to go up or down stairs every time. That'd be a reasonable ask, wouldn't it? With two little kids to look after before long, and already one who didn't always 'respect the diaper' when he went… She'd have to run that by Lucas, yeah. They were still thinking about getting an attic on the place, sure, but wouldn't this be important, too?

"Bee, you and I are going to have to have a chat about you taking freedoms with my bladder, huh?" Maya breathed as she finally got up the stairs and down the hall into the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Lucas had gotten Elliott's seat from the car. He still slept, but Lucas had stared at this boy enough times to know he would be coming around very soon, as Maya had said. The car was left turned on for the time being, leaving Zay and Nadine with the lights uninterrupted. Lucas would have to come back out to turn it off and grab the rest of their things once those two snapped out of it. Hopefully, they wouldn't take too long.

Making a wide berth as his wife had done, Lucas brought the car seat into the house, and he'd barely had time to set it down and shut the door that Elliott started to wake up in earnest and started to cry. Lucas unzipped and tossed his jacket before crouching to get him out of his seat.

"Hey now, alright, we're home, it's alright, okay?" Lucas promised, holding the baby close for a moment, casually checking to see if his diaper was in any way to blame for this reaction – it wasn't – before getting his boots off and starting up the stairs, humming under his breath to try and calm his boy. "Christmas is over, huh?" Lucas asked, sensing they might have hit a 'cranky spike,' which would mean a good stretch of holding and rocking and doing about every last thing they could think of that might calm him again. When he got like this, they knew that even those usually sure fire tricks could fall flat. "Okay, let's see," Lucas sighed, walking into the nursery and sitting in the rocking chair. They had two of them now, one in their room and one here, which really was reasonable, all things considered.

After a moment, he started at their top lullaby, the one composed by Elliott's grandfather long ago, and given words by his mother, just months ago. It had the best track record. Lucas would always feel like he had to apologize, as he didn't have the singing down nearly as well as Maya did, who could just inhabit the song like she had the ability to reach into the listener's heart and mind and brush away all the bad bits, until they were good and calm again. Elliott at least did not seem to hear the difference, and when he'd hear the familiar air, more often than not, he'd stop crying. Tonight, it took a good minute or two, but then it took a turn, and Elliott calmed down. Lucas smiled, feeling like his heart was glowing, right there in his chest, for how much he loved this little guy. The more he grew, oh… He looked like him, yes, but he had so much of his mother in him, too, and that was just…

"You know how much I love to hear you sing to him like that?" He looked up to find Maya standing in the nursery's doorway.

"I try not to abuse that power," he let her know, and she held in her laughter as best she could, moving toward the chair. "Feeling better?"

"So much," Maya breathed out. "Now I have only the one… extra load," she gestured at herself. Lucas reached up at this, lightly drumming his fingers at her belly as though greeting their good Bee and seeing if he or she might reward him with motion, contact. "Everything's quiet in there now, too," Maya told him, nodding to Elliott, who was drifting off again in his arms.

"Yeah, what about out there though?" Lucas wondered. In response, Maya snatched up the baby monitor and motioned for him to follow. He set Elliott in his crib before doing so.

"I don't see the car lights," Maya told him as he caught up with her halfway down the stairs. The reason for this became clear, as they got down to find Zay and Nadine bringing in the last of their things from the car, the keys left with Lucas' discarded jacket. "Alright, be honest, are you Santa Claus?" Maya asked Zay with a smile.

"Hey, mama," he came up to her now and embraced her. She returned the gesture, so thrilled to finally have him in person again. "Look at you, wow," he stood back a moment later, setting his hands to her belly as one with free permission might. "You guys aren't messing around, are you?"

"That is… so easy, I can't even say anything," Lucas laughed, getting his turn now at hugging his best friend, clapping him on the back as he did. "I'd ask you what brings you here, but that's pretty clear," he stole a look to Nadine, who had a smile stuck to her face like it would not dislodge so soon. "I still want to hear the story."

"I second that," Maya raised her hand.

"Alright, you got it, but first I have…" Zay moved to the one item he had brought in which had not come from Lucas' car but the rental truck, and that was a small cooler, which he opened before his friends. "I brought back a bit of New York for you, the part you can eat," he revealed. Maya had instant wide eyes.

"Welcome home, Babineaux," she smiled back at him.

Two minutes later, they were sitting around the kitchen table, some of Zay's treats set before them, happily found to have survived the trip. He had made the drive out from New York, just as Maya and her mother had done years before, leaving bright and early on Christmas Eve, after having spent a farewell dawn with the group out there. Some of the things yet to be taken from his truck were presents from all of them, which he had brought along to save them shipping.

"This is why your parents didn't go to New York with the others, isn't it?" Lucas asked, finally understanding after having been surprised to hear they were staying in Austin. He'd hated to think that they might have been having problems as a family, but now…

"Yeah," Zay confirmed with a nod. "My mom wanted me to get here sooner, so I wouldn't miss today, but… I don't know, it felt right this way."

"What made you decide?" Maya asked, stealing a look toward Nadine as Lucas had done before, specifying she was looking for the actual triggering moment, as they already knew who had been at the heart of it.

"I guess it started right after Thanksgiving, after I saw she'd come out here to be with you guys," Zay replied, looking to Nadine, too. "I wasn't happy out there, by myself. I was with friends, but I felt alone. When I saw Nadine on the screen that day, I could just tell, she felt the same way, in Boston. And she didn't even have people the way I did. She had to come all the way back to Austin, couldn't even go to New York because… I was there."

He'd look back at her every so often, like he wanted to make sure he had it right. She wasn't denying it, and that was all they needed to know.

"Then, when I heard she was moving back here, leaving Boston, that's when it all clicked, you know? I didn't belong up there, I wasn't supposed to be there, I was supposed to be here… with Nadine. I didn't know if she'd take me back, but I had to try, I had to make my big move. Told the others, told my parents… I was sure some of them would tell me I was losing my mind, but they didn't. They all looked at me like they'd been waiting for me to come to my senses and do this already. My dad even paid for the truck, and then my mom paid to put me up in a hotel last night just so I wouldn't try and keep driving without stopping. GiGi made me call her every few hours so she could keep me company," he smiled. "It was alright though. Had the radio on, Christmas songs cranked on high… and a goal at the end of all this."

"And I don't know why I even need to ask, when you guys made out so much we had to sneak around you before, but you're… okay now?" Maya asked, motioning between Zay and Nadine. The two looked to one another.

"We sort of went with our emotions a bit back there," Nadine conceded, cheeks turning slightly pink and veering on red. "We still have a lot to talk about, but we want to work things out. Being apart just… It sucked." Zay tapped the table at this, showing his agreement.

"Right, well, Pappy Joe is back at my parents' house tonight, you two should be alright up there?" Lucas offered. "Or one of you can still have the couch, if you're not ready to share…"

"We'll be alright," Nadine assured him.

"Thanks, man," Zay nodded, before a thought came to him and brought a smile along for the ride. "Mind if I look in on my godson up there?"

"You wake him, you have to get him back to sleep," Maya pointed a finger at him.

"Now, what kind of godfather would I be if I left him hanging?"

Uncle Zay's visit with Elliott had gone off without a hitch, and as the friends had gone to their respective rooms, the baby had been brought back to his parents' room, to his old crib. Maya and Lucas had briefly considered leaving him in the nursery, starting off Operation Crib Switch a little early, but then it had been such a long and eventful day, and neither of the young parents could pretend like they wouldn't rather have had their boy in the room with him as they'd done since he was born.

"This is giving me flashbacks to when I was getting close to stopping work at the restaurant back in Houston last year," Maya breathed as she climbed into bed.

"Bad feet?" Lucas guessed.

"Had worse by the end last time, but yeah, no, not a fan of those," she gestured blindly to the ends of her legs, barely visible over Mount Bee with the way she was lying down.

"Want me to do something about it?"

"Nah, just come here and… spoons," she attempted to mime with her hands the big and little spoons, somehow succeeding in creating a little bump for the spoon that represented her.

"I can do that," Lucas smiled, climbing under the covers and helping her get under, too, before they turned to their favored sleep position. "Better?" he asked.

"Mmm, much," Maya hummed, eyes already closing. Lucas kissed her shoulder, his hand set flat against her belly as he settled down. "Today was really good," Maya quietly told him.

"Yeah?" he asked. She nodded. "Good. Hoped you'd think so."

Waking up the next morning, Lucas – with Elliott in his arms – and Maya made their way down the stairs toward the kitchen, where they found Nadine and Zay busying themselves with breakfast and multitasking this along with what they soon discovered to be an apartment search.

"So the talk went well then," Maya stated in greeting, and their friends turned around. Nadine immediately put her phone down on the counter so she might go over and steal Elliott.

"Might want to give him a minute, he's still clingy he won't want to let me go just yet," Lucas told her. "You are first in line once he wakes up more."

"I'm not saying we're encouraging this behavior, but he's tiny and he loves us the most and we support his choices," Maya gave a pleased smile, putting herself in her son's line of sight and sharing this look with him. He reached out his hand to her and she kissed his fingers. "Apartments?" she asked, still holding his hand, as she turned back to Nadine and Zay.

"Right, yeah," Nadine snatched up her phone again. "We found a few we want to look at, good ones, not just whatever was out there. Now that there's the two of us, it'll be different. Got one we really like, and it's not too far from the hospital, we're just waiting until it's not so early before we can put in a call about a visit. Maya gave an instant look which her former bandmate understood. "You can come with us if you want."

"Well… if that's cool with you two," she smiled as though the offer had come out of the blue.

Though the days she'd spent on bed rest had done much to help her recover her strengths, and Christmas had gone as well as she could have hoped it to go, Maya still felt the need not to exert herself too much in those days that followed. With Nadine there at least, she'd started back on her old exercise routine, after it had fallen to the side while she'd been helping her father, and her mother, too. As the days progressed, it did start to feel like she had more energy than she'd done in a while, and she really wanted to keep this up, especially for when Lucas would be starting at school again in the next week.

In the meantime, life carried on, and for the most part it carried on with Zay and Nadine and their search for a home. Stuck in this gap between Christmas and New Year's, they hadn't been sure what to expect as to availabilities. Maybe people would just not want to show apartments that week. The 'dream place' near the hospital had certainly introduced the thought, as the landlady would not see them until the third of January.

"What if we hold on to that one so much without having seen it and we end up letting something pass that would have been just as good?" Nadine had asked Zay as the four of them were driving to their third visit, three days after Zay had arrived.

Elliott was back home with Pappy Joe, the two of them resuming their habitual marathons of the great grandfather's shows. When Lucas had worried that this would be too much television for Elliott, Pappy Joe had reassured him with the fact that he didn't actually have the boy staring at the screen most of the time, and he had to admit he had seen this for himself, as often Elliott would be sat facing Pappy Joe, the better for him to tell him all about this character or that episode.

"We're not going to do that," Zay promised. "If we find something we love, it'll be 'January Who? Sorry, we already found _our_ place."

Nadine laughed, and looking on from the rear-view mirror in the front, both Maya and Lucas loved to see how happy that sound made Zay. As much as they had carried on with their lives after the break up, as much as they could still be themselves, the truth was that, without one another, they just had not been the same. They had been miserable, and everyone who knew them and cared for them could see that there was just something missing, something that made them different people. From the moment Zay had come back to Austin, he and Nadine had been patching up those holes they'd left in one another, and now… now they were themselves again, truly and deeply.

They found their apartment on the thirtieth of December. After several visits over the span of four days, they had come across a number of places that were in their own ways okay, but none of them were really connecting. And then, 'January Who' had called them back, saying she had an opening for a visit, and she was offering it to them. It had been so sudden and Maya and Lucas had told them to go on ahead without them, as Maya was supposed to go and see her father that day, while Lucas had to work.

Lucas had picked his wife up from the Harts' after leaving the bookstore, and when they'd arrived home, he and Maya had found themselves surrounded by a jolly bunch, as Nadine helped Pappy Joe with dinner, while Zay was putting his skills forward as a prime infant entertainer. They couldn't say that they had heard Elliott laugh quite as much as they did in that moment.

"Hey, how did it go today?" Lucas asked, as Zay stood from the ground and picked up Elliott, the better to hand him to his eager mother.

"I have been told that I am not allowed to say anything until dinner," Zay replied, in the monotone voice of someone who had been given strict instructions. This only did so much of course, as even as he said these words, he was giving a slow, emphatic nod, and two thumbs up.

"Isaiah Babineaux, you couldn't even wait!" Nadine called from the kitchen, and he flinched now, looking around for where she might have been.

"She can't even see me," he told his friends before moving toward the kitchen. "I love you, Little Z, couldn't help myself!"

Even though Zay had already confirmed it for them, it was confirmed a second time over dinner that they had gotten the apartment near the hospital. The way they told it – with their words and with the pictures they had taken through their visit – it was even better than they had thought it would be from the listing. The place was already empty, and they would get the keys in just a few days, after which they would see about painting where they wanted to change the walls' colors. It had all been left in such pristine condition that there was nothing for them to fix, and if not for the paint, they could have just moved in the day they got the keys.

Now that Pappy Joe was back, and using his bed, Nadine had returned to the couch, while Zay took up an inflatable mattress which he would lay by her side. They might have decided to go right to the apartment once they had the keys, but then their bed – along with the rest of Nadine's belongings and furniture from the apartment in Boston – was still on its way and would not arrive until after the keys, so they were going to be sticking around with their friends until then.

"You know, I've been thinking about the appointment coming up," Maya told Lucas as she looked down at him, 'in talks' with the Bee on the morning of the thirty-first, the last day of the year. He turned his head to look at her and she smiled. He had heard her, but he didn't know what she'd said. "The appointment, next week, when we're supposed to find out if it's a… he-bee or she-bee," she explained, and oh how he smiled, too.

"What about it?" he asked, sitting back up from his usual belly talking position.

"I don't know, I'm just wondering if maybe we should _not_ find out, if we should let it be a surprise. It's not like either way will be a disappointment."

"Definitely won't," Lucas agreed.

"I just thought about… being at the hospital, giving birth, and then the baby would come out, and they would tell us, and… that'd be a good feeling, wouldn't it?" she asked, with a hopeful little look.

"Yeah, I think it would," Lucas set his hand back to her belly, thinking about their little Bee. "The only reason we might really want to know before is so that we can be prepared, and… we are, aren't we? We have loads of Elliott's things…"

"Which might be too small for him now but are still practically new, thanks to us and our super one-two pregnancy punch," Maya nodded with a sigh.

"And if it's a girl, well, we still have plenty to get us going, and we can catch up very fast, especially with all those grandparents hanging around," he laughed, thinking of all those presents they'd been forced to pile up in the nursery after Christmas. "Pretty sure someone stuck in some very girl-like clothing in there, like they were trying to manifest themselves a granddaughter. I don't even remember who gave what anymore."

"We will figure everything out once the baby's born. Anyway, the whole 'blue is for boys, pink is for girls' thing…" Maya shrugged. "So… surprise?"

"I'm in," Lucas nodded.

"Great," Maya smiled, then after a beat, "Should I let you two get back to your conversation there?" she asked, pointing to her belly.

"Hey, feel free to join in anytime…"

They both froze a moment later. Oh, the baby's movements had definitely started to feel a bit more kick-like in recent days, but whenever she'd try and get anyone to feel it, they would say they got nothing. This time though, Maya only had to have one look at Lucas' face to know that he had felt it, there underneath his palm.

"Alright, Bee, that was a solid hello," Maya felt that familiar tug at her heart, the one she'd had whenever she felt something new, with this baby and last year, too, with Elliott. Each one was taking them a step closer to that little kicker inside her belly being outside of it and in her arms, and Lucas' arms… and it felt like nothing else she'd ever known.

The new year was only a day away, and she knew already that it would be wonderful, despite the fact that, at some point, somewhere, it would be not so wonderful, when Kermit would be lost to them. But then he above any others would want them to focus on the good things, and that was what they would do. Elliott, the Bee… they were and would continue to be those brightest spots on the horizon.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	67. Knowledge For the Future

_Chapter 67_  
_Knowledge For the Future_

It had been so easy to get lost in the day to day of being at home, with Maya, with Elliott, but now today it was back to the books, back to class. Lucas was looking forward to it, he was. But at the same time, he knew he would be leaving a lot of himself back here, and he would have to make himself focus on his professors instead of wondering how his wife and son were doing back home. This was made particularly tricky for the fact that he was starting back from zero today. He wasn't going back to his new classmates from last semester, carrying on with them. Instead, it was new classmates, new professors, and a brand new degree. Alright, maybe he was a bit nervous about that more than anything.

He could hear Elliott off in his crib, just peacefully awake and entertained by his surroundings. More and more they could see him staring up at the tree on the wall, and they would wonder what he thought when he saw it. It also made them hesitate about relocating him to the nursery, starting the transition so that he'd be okay with his new crib by the time his baby brother or sister came around. Maya wasn't exactly in any condition to climb on a ladder and get painting these days.

"I think I just need to get him acclimated," Maya had declared the night before, when they had considered putting Elliott in the nursery for the night. "I can take him in there during the day, show him the mural there until he knows it more…"

She was looking to Lucas' return to school, too, from her own side of it, of course. While the next few weeks and months would be about business school, and finding his way with all these new people and subjects, she had her baking, and her research for Professors Robinson and Patil, on top of the ever evolving care of their son and the growth of their Bee, and helping her mother with baby Alex, and looking after her father in these last months of his life…

"Feels like a lot…" Lucas had stated, unable to keep from sounding concerned, as they'd reflected on this, getting into bed.

"I learned my lesson, don't worry, I won't overdo it," she'd smiled at him, sitting there, and the way she'd looked up at him as she did, he had to smile back. She barely had to do a thing to make him think she was just so adorable, but sitting there, twenty weeks along and smiling as she did…

"I know," he breathed, sitting with her and leaning to kiss the side of her head. "I just…"

"Can't help it?" she guessed. "I'd be more worried if you didn't worry."

Stepping up to the crib this morning, with his seven-month-old boy staring up at him and kicking his legs about, Lucas knew it would be alright. Maya would keep him posted, feeding him the odd cute picture or video, and by the end of the day he would get to come back and see those excited faces again.

"So, what's today?" Lucas asked Maya, when she'd woken and sat up in bed looking back at him with Elliott in his arms.

"Today," Maya's eyes turned up as she recalled. "I'll be here all morning. Mom's bringing Alex over here instead of me going out there. I am going to be trying a few sculpting things for cake decoration and she's going to help me out. Hoping to get a bit of exercise in after lunch unless someone has any other ideas for better use of my time," she nodded over to the baby with a smirk. "And then I'm going to see my dad for a bit since I won't get to go tomorrow." Even if they had decided to be surprised about whether they were having a girl or another boy, it didn't stop them from looking forward to this appointment anyway, to see how much their Bee had grown and if everything was on track.

"No running late this time," Lucas shook his head, thinking back to how he'd missed most of the appointment last time, when they were finding out about Elliott being a boy, because one of his professors had held him back to talk. This time around they had been able to schedule their day at the doctor's so it would be on a non-class day. He was working at the bookstore, but he'd taken the afternoon off, the better to accompany his wife.

Driving up to the university that day, it felt like he'd gone and hit rewind and ended up back at the beginning of the previous semester. He'd been new then, too, under different circumstances. At the very least, he'd had someone there to prevent him from being a complete stranger. He'd had Ramona, back from high school, middle school, elementary… He didn't have any of that today, or at least not entirely. He'd barely gotten out of his car that he spotted a trio of familiar faces headed his way, as though they had been waiting there for him to show up. Ramona, Gabriela, and Ariana, his now former classmates but forevermore friends, and self-proclaimed aunties to Elliott… At this point, they were basically family, so what did it matter that they wouldn't be in class together anymore?

"Going to miss you in there," Gabriela greeted him with a quick hug.

"If it helps, I really wish you were all going to be out there with me, too," Lucas laughed.

"Any cute, single guys in any of your classes, you let me know, yeah?" Ariana tapped his arm. "I could do with a business oriented man."

"What's he going to do, walk in and say 'hello, I'm Lucas, I'm new, you seeing anyone?'" Ramona couldn't help but chuckle at the thought.

"There are better ways," Ariana protested. "Besides, the guy is good with words, isn't he?"

"Better yet, have him show your picture around," Gabriela chimed in, and whether or not this was sarcasm, Ariana was all smiles and nodding as though saying 'yeah, let's do that.'

"We could just walk him to class," Ramona spoke up, the voice of reason in the trio. "We don't start for a while." If he didn't already know he would miss being in class with them, this would have definitely done it.

There was hardly time for Ariana to go and poach herself a potential match, though the rest of them had gotten a kick out of watching her scope out the guys coming toward the room, being so very covert but also not covert at all.

"Okay, we have to get her out of here before she embarrasses you in front of all your new friends. Have a great morning, text us for lunch," Gabriela told Lucas before nudging for Ariana to get up and follow. Ramona stood and waved back with a grin before following the other two. Lucas watched them go, feeling about as ready as he could get, with a handful of minutes to spare.

"Friends of yours?" He looked up to find a guy looking back at him, the textbook under his arm pegging him for being part of his class.

"Yeah," Lucas chuckled. "They, uh… They wanted to come and see me to my first class," he explained, deciding against sharing anything along the line of 'one of them wanted to stare at the guys and find herself a boyfriend.' "I was in a different program last semester," he added instead.

"Figured you were new, guess I was half right. I'm Trey," he extended his hand, and Lucas stood from his bench to shake it.

"Lucas," he nodded.

"How come you changed programs?"

"Long and short of it? I'm married, got a seven-month-old son and another baby due in May, and it was better for everyone if I went and worked with my father instead of being in school another six years to be a veterinarian, so here I am."

"Wow," Trey blinked. "Okay, got it," he laughed before turning to signal some of the others to come over. A guy and girl, standing just inside the lecture hall, stepped back out and walked over to them.

"Made a new friend?" the girl asked, with a smirk belonging to a joke Lucas did not understand until Trey brushed this off with a smile.

"No, nothing like that," he told her before turning back to Lucas. "This is Kat, that's Wilson," he pointed to each of his friends. "If you need to get caught up with anything, you should talk to them. _And_ they've got a kid, too, so you'll have that in common. Guys, this is Lucas, he's new," he turned the introduction toward his friends. Within seconds, all hands had been shaken along with vows that it was nice to meet one another.

"How old is yours?" Wilson asked. He looked to be a couple years older, as did Kat, possibly about twenty-three or twenty-four. He also looked like he could have been Sophie's brother, with that head of red hair and those freckles.

"Uh, well, our son is seven months old now, but we have another one on the way, due in May," Lucas revealed. "You?"

"Our daughter just turned two on Christmas Eve," Kat replied, with a smile Lucas knew very well, from his own face and Maya's, whenever they spoke of Elliott. He'd probably had a similar one a moment ago.

As they headed into the hall to go and find seats, Lucas gave the trio a brief rundown of how he'd ended up here, from transferring over from Houston when they were expecting Elliott, to be closer to their families, and then starting here last fall only to find himself having to reconsider his goals when they found out they were expecting again, dropping his plans to be a vet and instead working toward joining his father's business, which brought him here today.

Lucas had not expected to find himself making friends so fast, and who knew if that was what Trey, Kat, and Wilson would become, but he had a pretty good feeling about them so far. To think, it might not all have happened so fast if Ariana and the others departing when they did hadn't caught Trey's attention and got them talking.

When he mentioned this to the girls over lunch, a brief 'you're welcome' from Ariana had been followed by questions over these two guys Lucas had been getting to know. To no surprise, she was particularly interested in their character and also their relationship statuses.

"Well, Wilson and Kat are married," Lucas told her. "And then Trey I think is single, but there's also a chance he's gay… or bi, or… Didn't get a chance to say for sure." Ariana kept looking at him. "I'll find out," he promised, and she smiled.

By the end of the day, as he drove up the lane and toward home, Lucas had one thing on his mind and it was getting to see his wife and son. The day may have been hectic enough to keep him more focused than he'd anticipated, but now that it was all over, he missed his family.

The moment he opened the door, he could hear Elliott's high pitched crying from upstairs, along with the fainter sound of Maya's singing. Lucas made his way up at once, just as Maya was crossing from their room and into the nursery, rocking their crying babe. A moment later, she went out the other way again. Lucas didn't know how long she'd been pacing from one end of their room to the other wall in the nursery and back, but he'd guess by the look on her face, not even noticing him as she went, that it had been some time. He went after her into the room.

"Tag me in?" he asked. Maya startled, just barely, as she turned and found him there.

"Not yet, I'm alright," she promised, weaving the words into the lullaby before carrying on with her lyrics. Elliott looked like he'd been screeching his head off into her ear long enough to go all red in the face. Maya just about had to let the lullaby work on her before it would even work on their son, knowing that her losing her calm would only make it harder for Elliott to calm down.

"Want to sandwich him?" Lucas approached. Not waiting so much for an answer, he came up and embraced Maya, not so tight, just enough that Elliott was now between them. He joined his voice to hers, briefly kissing the boy's head.

They ran through the whole song about three times before Elliott either stopped crying or tired himself out so much that he couldn't do anything else but fall asleep, his little head resting at his mother's tired shoulder, her own head sitting at her husband's shoulder.

"Want me to put him down?" Lucas quietly asked.

"In a minute," Maya replied, turning her face up to him. "Hey," she smiled.

"Hi," he smiled back, kissing her. "I really missed you today."

"Me, too," she told him, looking back down to the now sleeping Elliott.

Eventually, Maya had let him take the baby from her. Lucas carried him to his crib, laying him down. He turned back to find his wife sitting on the edge of the bed, running a hand along her belly.

"How was school?" she asked as he came and sat next to her.

"It was good, you know," he shrugged, and he only had to catch the way she looked at him to know she'd seen right through his 'never mind my bit, what's up with you' tactic. "Felt a bit like jumping into a book about a third of the way through when everyone else has read the whole thing," he described. "Everything I tried to read up on since I got my switch over, that helped at least. By the end of the day it didn't feel so jarring anymore. I don't know what it'll be like tomorrow, and the day after that, but whatever it is, I'll get through it," he confidently declared. "Made some friends… a bit," he added. "One guy, and then a married couple. They have a little girl, just turned two a couple weeks ago," he told her, and Maya smiled. "Now you," he met her eye.

"Hey, don't let the welcome wagon fool you," she wagged her finger off toward the crib. "Today was good for me, too," she nodded. "Come see what I did."

They headed down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Maya indicated for Lucas to sit at the table while she went to the refrigerator. She brought over a plastic container, from which she pulled out a figure of a small man which looked an awful lot like Pappy Joe.

"That is so good," Lucas chuckled, carefully handling the figure.

"I was supposed to try a bunch of things, but then I just kept working at that one. I might need to practice getting quicker at doing these."

"Did you show him yet?"

"Oh, yeah," Maya laughed. "He couldn't stop looking at it, took a picture, front and back. He's up visiting the Sandersons right now, went out when I came back from my dad's with Elliott."

"Is that when he started…"

"Caterwauling? Oh, yeah," she sighed. "He was on the ground, crawling around, and he almost went under the bed. I barely managed to snatch him up," she gestured at herself and the part that had been getting in the way. "It was all so fast, he freaked out, and you know the rest." Now that he knew the whole story – now that it was over – they could both sort of laugh it off.

"How was it at your dad's?" Lucas asked.

"Good," Maya nodded. "I mean…" she trailed off, which he took to mean that Kermit had been more or less okay, enough that it would have been easy for someone to assume he was a healthy man of forty, instead of one with a death sentence hanging over his head. Those were almost just as hard as the ones where they could see that something was wrong with him, because sooner or later they would realize they had let themselves get fooled into thinking that everything was well… and then they'd remember that it was so, so far from 'well.'

"Why don't you see if he'd like to come with us tomorrow?" Lucas suggested even as the thought came to him. Maya looked back at him, and she quickly smiled before moving to grab her phone.

The next day, after Lucas went off to the bookstore for the morning, Maya brought Elliott over to Pappy Tom and Granny Mel's house, where he was to spend the better part of the day, until after the appointment. Maya would still joke with her in-laws, making sure that they intended to give the baby back. The way they'd greet his arrival, it really left one to wonder.

Going straight to the Hart house after this, she couldn't deny a part of her had worried that she'd arrive there and find that her father was having a bad day and wouldn't be able to follow. Thankfully this did not turning out to be the case. If anything, Maya didn't think that she'd seen him quite so energized in a while. He was beyond excited at the prospect of seeing his grandchild, hearing his or her heartbeat, and Maya would have given anything to keep giving him reasons to become so energized.

"You two still don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl this time?" Kermit asked as they sat in the waiting room at the clinic, waiting for Lucas.

"We decided to know last time because we didn't see any reason not to," Maya told him. "And there still isn't one not to know this time either, except that it'll be nice to be surprised. So, yeah, we're just going in to make sure everything's as it should be, but that's it."

"Won't you be able to tell? You did last time, didn't you?"

Maya smiled, recalling the day. Lucas had been in school, but he would have made it in time if not for his teacher holding him back to talk. She'd tried to make it so they would wait for him, but there just was no time, and she didn't want to have to reschedule, so she'd gone ahead and sat up there, let them start. As soon as the sound of Elliott's heart could be heard, as soon as she could see the image on the screen… It was all she could see and think about.

The doctor had asked her if she wanted to know what it was, boy or girl. Maya had told her how she wanted to wait for Lucas to get there, even as she did her best not to look too close at anything that might have confirmed one way or the other. The baby had been healthy, that much she had been told, and she was relieved to hear it. Then when the doctor had stepped out, it had been stronger than her, and Maya had looked at the image. She hadn't meant to see anything, but then she had, and as she'd tell Lucas, it had been impossible to unsee it. The realization had been immediate, and her eyes had welled up, knowing they had been having a baby boy. When Lucas had arrived, all out of breath and full of apologies, all she could think was 'now I get to tell him.' It had been even better.

Now, this time, she didn't know what would happen, but she had every intention not to find out. Lucas arrived while Maya and Kermit were still in the waiting room, barely had time to say hello that they were being called in.

"Dad, you don't have to stand in the corner like that, you're not in time-out," Maya laughed, holding out her hand for him to step up and stand nearby just as Lucas did.

Lucas had spent the whole morning just bordering on stressed, thinking of the many things that could have gone wrong to keep him from being on time at the appointment that day. It was dumb, he knew. He had been on plenty of appointments with Maya, in both pregnancies, and with Elliott, never been late or missed a single one he was supposed to show up at, but he'd missed that one specific one, and this being the one with the same purpose, even if they weren't planning to find out, he felt particularly intent on being on time. He hadn't relaxed until he'd made it into the clinic and they'd heard Maya's name get called.

Now he stood next to the big chair where she sat, as she pulled up her shirt and the doctor got the machine started. And as much as he looked at the screen when the image came up, Lucas found himself looking at Kermit several times as he witnessed all this. He had been to his fair share of sonograms in his life, by both Katy and Abigail's accounts he had never missed one, none of Maya's or Sam's, Cara's, Eliza's, or Wyatt's. This was different though, wasn't it? This was his grandchild, and though it was not the first, it was one he might never get to see with his own eyes except on a screen like this.

"Hey, you alright?" Maya had reached over to take her father's hand, seeing how he looked like he was about to cry. Kermit nodded, at a loss for words. He was just so thankful that they had invited him today.

"Do you want to know the sex of the baby?" the doctor asked, once she'd finished her examination. Maya and Lucas exchanged a look, one more confirmation.

"We don't," Maya told her.

"We want to wait," Lucas added.

"Alright, well, just in case you change your mind, I can write it down for you, put it in an envelope?" Another look. It didn't hurt to have the option to change their minds, right? So, the doctor wrote on a small card, folded it, stuck it inside an envelope, sealed this, and handed it over. It felt like they were being presented with something way more powerful than a piece of paper. And they had to laugh for how they both hesitated before Lucas finally took it and stuck it in his back pocket.

"So, _this_ won't be a surprise, I have to pee," Maya announced as her father helped her back on her feet.

"I should probably go, too," he told her.

"Come on, I'll show you where the men's room is," Maya led the way.

Lucas moved to follow, only to stall when he saw that Maya had left her jacket on a nearby chair. He went and grabbed it, taking another quick look at the screen. They would get a print out of this latest scan, where they had been promised that anything potentially 'revealing' would not be visible. The same could not be said of what was up on that screen just then. All it took was one glimpse and it was done. Once he saw it, he stalled on the spot, looking in earnest this time. In his head, he could hear Maya's voice, not one year ago. _So, you're a guy._

They were having another boy. Elliott would have a little brother, and he and Maya… they would have sons… _sons_…

His hand briefly pressed to his mouth, swallowing the surprise, even as he had to tell himself to pull it together before he got back to Maya and her father. They weren't going to find out this time, they'd decided. This had been an accident, but there was no going back, was there? He was going to have to pretend like he didn't know, for the next four months. If Maya knew that he knew, it would just bug her until she'd insist on being told, and then she wouldn't get that surprise she'd so wanted. No, for her sake, he was going to have to pretend. He could do it, he could… for their Bee, their boy.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	68. Twenty-Two

_Chapter 68_  
_Twenty-Two_

It seemed like only a moment ago, they had been celebrating Maya's twenty-first birthday, and now a year had gone by. A lot had changed, but a lot felt very much the same. She was pregnant, again, and the state of her father's health weighed heavily on her. This year, even more so…

Lucas could tell just by looking at her that a part of her wasn't sure if she even wanted a party, anything more well wishes and maybe a cake. But then, it was like Christmas, just a bit. This would be their last one together, Kermit and her, and _he_ definitely wanted to celebrate her birthday, so the party was on, over the coming weekend.

It had been a week since the appointment, where the three of them had gone to see the baby, where Lucas had accidentally discovered they were having a boy again, even though they had been meant to be surprised. Keeping it from Maya was not what he would have wanted, but he was determined to let her have the surprise at least. He might not have had that for himself, but seeing it in her… that would be enough. At the same time, it left him with a number of thoughts to sort through.

The one that kept turning over in his head felt like two separate thoughts, swirling around one another, waiting for him to bring them together. Finally, today, it had hit him, as he'd spent been on his lunch break. After he finished eating, he would usually go and browse around for a while, and more often than not he would find himself either browsing kids' books, always on the lookout for something to add to Elliott's shelves, or the pregnancy and baby books, because it was so much of his life.

Maya had extended the choice of their Bee's name out to him, as she had been the one to name Elliott. So, a lot of the time, he would find himself browsing the same book of names. They had one, back home, just like this one, but then he was here, and every time he ended up near the shelf, he would keep going to it and turn the pages again. He'd yet to find one he liked enough to say 'that's it, that's the name,' especially as he didn't know whether they'd even use it for sure up until the week before. Now, it felt more real, and when he looked at those boys' names, he could almost see this small face in his mind's eye.

Today, he was paging through the F section, and his eyes had found the name Francis. It didn't make him think 'oh, this is a good one for the maybe pile.' Instead, it made him think about Maya's father. Kermit Hart had been named in honor of his mother's late brother. His name had been Francis, but people had taken to nickname him Kermit the Frog because of his lanky frame, gangly limbs… Elizabeth Hart had passed this on to her son in tribute.

Kermit… the name… Lucas knew what he had to do now.

Maya was at her parents' house that afternoon, looking after her baby brother, which meant that, when he left the bookstore and made his way to the Hart house, Lucas could be certain that she wouldn't be around. When he came up to the door, he was let in by Maya's grandmother, who was in the midst of making dinner before her grandchildren came home from school. Kermit was sitting on the couch, watching television even as he appeared to be trying to fix one of Wyatt's toys.

"I didn't see it when I sat," he told Lucas. "Just can't get the side to snap back in place."

"Can I?" Lucas pointed to the thing, and Kermit held it out to him as he came to sit at his side.

"I didn't know you were coming over tonight, is Maya…"

"Oh, she doesn't know I'm here," Lucas explained, working at the toy still.

"Oh?" Kermit asked, just as the side of the toy clicked back into place, making him laugh. "You fixed it, thank you."

"Sure," Lucas smiled, setting the thing down on the coffee table before turning to his father-in-law. "The reason I'm here is that I wanted to talk to you about something, for the baby, _about_ the baby." Kermit nodded, listening. After listening for a moment, confirming that Elizabeth was back in the kitchen, Lucas looked to the man. "I don't think I'm out of line to say that… we're all hoping that you'll still be with us when the baby comes, but… there's a chance… you might not be." Kermit sat quietly for a moment, and Lucas briefly wondered if he'd overstepped, but really he knew that what was going through the man's mind right now was just so much.

"I try to be positive about it, for Abby, for my mom, my sister… the kids… But I don't have any delusions for myself. Every day that goes by, every day I get to wake up again and see them… I want to hold on, for them, for that baby… But I'm not going to... I know it. I feel it."

The confession was so plain and open, and it caught Lucas just slightly off guard. At the same time, it made his idea feel that much more purposeful.

"Mr. Hart…" he started.

"Kermit," his father-in-law insisted.

"I'm going to tell you something, and it has to stay between us, okay?" Lucas smiled.

"Alright," Kermit nodded, growing curious.

"Remember last week, when we were at the clinic, you and Maya went off to find the bathrooms, and I went back in because she'd forgotten her vest?" Another nod. "The image was still on the screen, from the sonogram. And I didn't mean to see anything, but, well… I did… And I can't tell anyone, especially Maya, because we were going to be surprised. But now I _do_ know, and since then I've been thinking about it all the time. Today I figured out why, I figured… If I hold on to it, then everyone gets surprised, sure, but also there's you. You might not get that surprise, you might never get to know, and that's not… It shouldn't be that way. I know it's going to hurt Maya to think about that."

"I wanted to look, when we were there," Kermit recalled. "I thought 'what's the harm?' I really wanted to know, too, but then I didn't want to risk spoiling it for the two of you, if I said something by accident…"

"I think you'll do okay," Lucas promised, feeling he'd made the right call more than ever as he saw the hopeful look on the man's face. "And I need you to, because that's not the only reason I'm here. Maya is leaving me the choice of the name this time around, but I got to thinking earlier today, and I think it would please us both, Maya and I, if _you_ picked it." Kermit's face registered surprise in a way that made his resemblance to Maya so evident, or hers to him at least.

"Pick… the baby's name?" Kermit asked, making sure. Lucas nodded. "Oh…" the emotion rattled through him, enough that he might have started to cry. He took a breath.

"The two of you might never get to meet, but at least this way… there will always be a part of you with him," Lucas went on, and to see how that one small pronoun registered and expanded in the ailing grandfather's mind…

"You're having another boy," he stated, and Lucas' face was one big smile as he nodded once more. Kermit responded to this by pressing him in a quick hug. "Okay… I-I can do that, I… First and middle?"

"Yes," Lucas agreed. "You can write it down and seal it in an envelope, like the doctor did back at the clinic. Then after the baby is born, we will open it and see."

"I'll have to think about it, a name…" Kermit breathed. His face kept resetting to that smile, thinking about his future grandson again, and if there had been any need left for Lucas to convince himself this was the right call, he'd just filled it.

"Take your time," he insisted.

A few days later, the morning came for the day of Maya's birthday party. She wasn't actually turning twenty-two until a couple days later, but they were having the party on the weekend before.

Lucas had gotten pretty good at feeling out his wife's discomforts, between this pregnancy and the last, and that morning he could tell by the way she lay there next to him that her back was getting to act up, as it had done in the last few months before Elliott had come. Without prompt, he'd reached over and worked to try and relieve some of that pain.

"I wasn't sure if you were awake," Maya mumbled, letting out a breath that suggested his hands had not come a minute too soon.

"Morning," he smiled and leaned to press a kiss at her shoulder.

"I did not miss this part…" she groaned, which told him he'd found the spot most in need of relief. "The pain, I mean. Your hands right there, give me that any day."

"Happy to," Lucas promised. In time, she moved to turn herself over, the better to get a look at him. "Hey." His face turned to a smile, as did hers.

"Hey… So it's not _really_ my birthday, but also… it's my birthday…" she stated, with a small 'cheer.'

"It is, yes," he laughed, pulling her closer until her belly would allow them no nearer. "Do you know what the best thing is about having your party birthday _and_ your actual birthday?" She shook her head. "It means that I get to express how happy I am that you exist, not once but twice." Her laugh here came like a burst, and they both looked over to the crib on reflex, only to remember that they had put Elliott in the nursery last night.

"Like you ever need a reason to say that, Huckleberry," Maya smirked, hooking her finger at his shirt collar to pull him into a kiss.

"You caught me there," he grinned before their lips met. This lasted all of five seconds before the sound of Elliott crying floated across the hall. "And we're off," Lucas breathed as he and Maya both moved to rise and walk over to see how their boy was doing.

The transition into the nursery still wasn't entirely achieved. As of yet, they had not managed to put him there when he was awake. He wouldn't fall asleep. The only way they could put him there and expect any results was if he was already asleep by the time they set him in the new crib. Once that happened, they had to hope he would stay that way, or else they'd be back to the top of the routine. It didn't feel like they were really making progress, when they would put him down in his old crib to get him to fall asleep before carrying him across the hall.

"It's the tree, isn't it?" Maya sighed as they walked in now and Lucas lifted Elliott into his arms. "You miss your leaves," she cooed, taking her son's small hand and kissing it. "Do you think there's any way to get me up there and make him one without me falling and…" she gestured down to herself before turning her eyes back to Lucas.

"If there is, then we'll find it," he promised her, all the while brushing at Elliott's hair until it wasn't sticking up so much. This amused the boy very much, which in turn made his parents happy. "Not today though," Lucas added.

"No, of course not," Maya agreed. When he moved to hand her Elliott, she received him with an eager smile. "Today, we go party mode," she informed her son. He took this proclamation as a cue to prod his little fingers at her face. "Or that."

The party was set to take place at the Hart house. It didn't take long for them to figure out that everything was already being put in motion bright and early that day. Lucas' parents were already out there in mid-morning, and Maya's Hunter contingent soon followed, as did her friends out of Houston. Pappy Joe eventually headed out ahead of them, leaving the 'guest of honor' to call on her patience as she waited for the time when she would be cleared to join them. It was not the easiest thing to do, not on this one especially, not when she couldn't stop thinking about her father, and how this was her very last chance to have a day like this with him.

He had been here, for her birthday the previous year. It had been the first time, in so many years, but because they were both still finding their way with each other after being apart so long, it was different. So much had changed for them in this past year, and to think that it had taken his illness and ever declining health to get them here, it felt… it felt like such a cruel joke, of time, of… life… It was Christmas all over again, wasn't it? She wanted to be there, wanted the party, but she also dreaded it, somewhere deep in her heart and mind. Christmas had been good though, it had been great, and her birthday would be that, too. She had to believe it.

When the time had finally come for them to head over to the Hart house, they'd gotten in the car, where Lucas had seen to it that both his wife and son would arrive at the party feeling good, not cranky or distracted in any way, with a solid choice of tunes on the radio. If nothing else, it definitely got him some very appreciative smiles from Maya at his side.

"Well, they were waiting for us," Lucas noted, nodding over to window by the door, even as said door opened and there stood Maya's sisters, all four of them. Seeing them alone was enough to get her even more pumped up for this day. It still amazed her sometimes to see her Hart and Hunter sibling co-existing in this way. Mostly, it really warmed her heart to feel they could all be a family together.

After the rush of small hands to her belly which usually served as greeting these days, Maya headed into the house with Elliott in her arms, while Lucas brought up the usual travel load that came with taking their baby boy into the world. There was usually less of it whenever they went to the grandparents' houses, as they all had their own share of items at the ready to welcome their grandson, especially the Hunters, naturally.

More people meant more hugs, and belly feels, and questions, and well wishes for Maya's birthday being given out, as though they wouldn't happen all over again in a couple days' time. It was a lot, and it never seemed to stop, but then they just kept going, caught in the whirlwind. As ever, Maya's father had shown himself patient in ways unparalleled. She knew that this was born of how, even after the past year, he still felt that he needed acknowledge and respect the fact that he had been out of her life for so long, when he should have been in it all along. It didn't matter that she had forgiven him, through and through, didn't matter that neither one of them wanted the alternative of Sam and the other Hart kids never having been born. Kermit's reflex remained to allow everyone else to go before him.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," he greeted her approach with a hug and a kiss to the side of her head. Maya held to him, as she tended to do now, like she was trying to make up not for the hugs she hadn't gotten before but instead the ones she wouldn't get in the future. Her father's hugs easily fell in a similar category.

"Thanks, Dad," she looked back up at him. That was another part of it, too, wasn't it? Every time he heard her call him that, she could practically see his heart balloon up. He'd earned it back, all the way, and now she wanted him to know it, whenever she got the chance. "How's it going today?" she asked.

"I took a nap earlier, did a world of good, now I'm ready to make this a birthday to remember. I might just break out a few dance moves," he revealed in hushed tones. Maya could hardly contain her laughter.

"No pressure, but I kind of want to see that now," she nodded.

"Think you'll be able to join me?" he asked, and there was that rise of energy in him. How could she ever say no?

"I will do my best to make that happen," she smiled "Back's been acting up today."

"Let's put luck on our side, come on and sit for a while, I've got something for you."

Maya would have found it so much easier to tell him that the gift she had received at Christmas could easily have covered her birthday as well – for a couple of years at the least – if she couldn't see how much it brought him to make her and her siblings happy. He went around like it was the one power he had left in the world, and he was going to use it for as long as he could.

"I wasn't sure how to do this, but I ran it by Lucas and he helped me make sure that it would all be doable. Now, if you don't want to or if you can't, I don't want you to feel obligated in any way to say yes," Kermit prefaced his gift.

"Okay," Maya chuckled, unsure what had him nervous like this.

"Okay," he echoed, reaching inside his jacket and pulling out an envelope he then presented to his firstborn. Maya turned it around in her hand before opening it. As soon as she'd lifted the flap, she could tell what was inside, and it puzzled her to see it looked like… plane tickets? _Austin to New York. New York to Austin. _For him, for her – with Elliott – and Lucas, too. The following week, leaving Thursday, returning Monday. Maya looked back up to her father, blinking. "I've been thinking about the things I want to do before I go, the things I need to do while I can. I would love to be back in New York, one more time, and I'd like to be there with you. Thing is, I know it would be time sensitive for the both of us. I would need to go before I get any worse, and you, well…" he tipped his head to her belly, her little Bee growing by the day.

Maya looked back down to the tickets, up to her father. She didn't know what to say. Looking across the room, she could see Lucas observing them as he stood with Sophie and Chiara, the first holding Elliott as they both entertained him with funny faces. She had no idea when this discussion had happened between them, how long he'd known about this idea, but she could tell he had been anxious for her to learn about it and to know if she'd be on board or not… She looked at the tickets again, the dates. She definitely didn't have anything on any of those days, nothing that couldn't be easily rescheduled or cancelled, like hanging out with any of her parent group.

Being in New York again… with her father… Oh, the idea of it was enough to get her smiling. She might have had more difficulty making up her mind if she didn't already know Lucas and Elliott would be there, too. She was _not_ ready to be away from her son for days at a time, across the country, nor was she ready to force Lucas to do the same by taking Elliott and leaving him on his own here in Texas. This would mean taking a plane, and she dreaded to think how Elliott would handle that, but it was hardly a factor, was it? As much as this trip would be for her father, it would be for her, too, and she didn't want to lose this chance either.

"Then we have to go now," she smiled and nodded, and Kermit beamed with relief. She hugged him again, and he hugged her back. "Hope I can get Elliott more comfortable being away from his tree by then," she thought aloud. At her father's confused look, she explained how the attempts to relocate Elliott to the nursery, away from his old crib and the tree mini-mural had been less than successful so far. "I'm going to try and find a way to remake it for him in the nursery, even with… all this going on," she ran her hand along her belly.

"I could do that for you," Kermit spoke up at once.

"Dad…" she shook her head, the very idea of him on a ladder these days making her instantly concerned.

"No, I know I'm not the most solid some days, but it's just me, where _you_ have my grandbaby in there," her father countered, laying his hand over hers. "I'm not half bad at drawing, and… the idea that I could leave this for Elliott, for this one and any others who might come after I'm gone…" He really had her with that perspective, and no matter how she'd try and spin it, she could never forget how much it would mean to her, for her children to have this to know their grandfather by.

"Okay, compromise?" she told him, even as the thought came to her.

"Go for it," Kermit nodded.

"You are not getting on a ladder," she started, holding up her finger and silencing him when he opened his mouth to speak. "Non-negotiable," she insisted, and he held up his hands in surrender. "My tree, in mine and Lucas' room, even if we move someday and it has to stay there to be painted over, covered, whatever, I'll be sad a bit but I'll get over it. If you go and paint yours up there and we leave… No way. I'm going to talk to Lucas' aunt, Dot, and see if she can make a cut out of some kind. You can paint that, and then we can fix it to the wall in the nursery. Then, if we did end up moving, or… when the kids would be too big to want it there anymore… we can still hold on to it. Do we have a deal?"

"Where do I sign?" Kermit nodded, smiling. Maya laughed. Suddenly, she was very glad that it had all shaped up the way it did. If she had just done the tree in the nursery back when she was smaller, steadier, they wouldn't have had this new tree in the works. Between this and the trip to New York, this birthday was shaping up to be just what she'd needed it to be. And it was only getting started.

"I think I'm ready to give dancing a try, you?" she asked her father. With a self-assured nod, Kermit stood from the couch and held out his hands to his daughter.

"All you had to do was ask."

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


	69. The Tree & the Big Apple

_Chapter 69_  
_The Tree & the Big Apple_

Maya never had to worry about being made to feel special on her birthday. She had Lucas Friar for a husband, and you had to hand it to the guy, he wore his feelings as openly as anything… especially when these had to do with her, their son, or their Bee. Waking up on the morning of her twenty-second birthday, she didn't have to worry for any chill that might have invaded the January air thanks to the arms wrapped snuggly around her. One of Lucas' hands was – of course – splayed over her belly, while the other had gotten hold of one of hers, bringing their fingers entwined together.

"Oh, so you're both awake, huh?" she spoke quietly, when the baby's movements had led to Lucas' hand moving to follow.

"Wasn't sure if you were and I didn't want to wake you," he replied, tipping his head over her shoulder so he might kiss her cheek. It got her laughing. "Happy, happy birthday," he wished her.

"Looking good so far," she appraised. "You just keep holding on to me like that and it's going to be even better." It wasn't even entirely her joking around. The way they were positioned together just now, her back didn't pain her one bit.

"That's only going to work so long once little guy over there decides we've ignored him long enough," Lucas reminded her. Maya only had to turn her eyes up to see the crib in the corner, and their son lying there, grabbing at his toes. They'd decided to put him in their room last night, the better to sidestep any morning cries from across the hall.

"That is a terrible choice to make," she sighed. "I want him here with us, but that would mean one of us moving, and we _just_ decided we weren't going to do that."

"Yeah, that's a tough one," Lucas chuckled, pressing kisses to her shoulder. "It's _your_ birthday though, so you get to decide."

"Oh, sure, leave it on me," she 'accused.'

The choice was made in the end, not by Maya, or Lucas, and not even by Elliott. Instead, it was the sound of Pappy Joe's laughter from downstairs, and the realization that there was someone else there with him. It was barely seven in the morning, and there had been no doorbell, not to their knowledge, so who could be here at this hour?

"The curiosity… It's always the curiosity," Maya sighed as she and Lucas both moved to rise out of bed. She went over to the crib automatically, there to be greeted by the brightest of smiles out of her baby boy as she picked him up. "Oh, I'm so happy to see you, too, Sprout," she grinned, getting one good breath of him. "Well, that diaper held up," she complimented and kissed his blond hair. "Come on, let's go see who's the early bird with your Great Pappy Joe."

Lucas had already made his way down the hall. Even as he climbed down the stairs the voices had grown clearer, until he could recognize who the other voice belonged to. It wasn't until he got further down though that he discovered there were four people downstairs, but then two of them were in the kitchen and thus unheard up until he got closer and spotted them. Sam and Cara Hart were in there, making breakfast by the looks of it. Meanwhile, their father sat in the living room, talking with Pappy Joe, who spotted his grandson and sat up with a face that asked 'oh, is she awake?' Lucas nodded and pointed up. She was on her way down, one step at a time. The two men stood up from the couch, making it look as though they were all subjects waiting for their ruler to come down.

Maya caught his eye as she came down, clearly too curious to find out what was going on to even wait until she could see for herself. He wasn't about to tell her, oh no, he wasn't going to ruin that surprise for her, not on her birthday. Although…

"Let me just grab this guy," he climbed up to join her. It wasn't so much that he expected her to lose her grip and drop him, but it would be easier this way.

"Shenanigans," she whispered her 'accusation' as she had to surrender Elliott. At least he didn't get too disturbed over this switch from one parent to the other.

"Go on, birthday girl, after you," Lucas nodded down the stairs.

So Maya went, though she did not see her siblings in the kitchen just yet, as they had moved out of view. She _did_ find her father though, there with Pappy Joe, and it still affected her so much to feel this bubble of happiness in her chest when he would be around now. On this one occasion though… For once, in what felt like a first as of late, she wasn't thinking about the fact that she was seeing her father on what would be the last of her birthdays she'd manage to spend with him. She was just thinking 'it's my birthday, and my dad is here to surprise me.

"Hey…" Kermit moved over to greet her and embrace her, smiling with a similar unencumbered joy. Here he was, with his daughter, on her birthday. "Happy birthday, Maya."

"This feels familiar, almost like we did this already, not too long ago," she smiled.

"Oh, so it's not just me then," he laughed.

"Don't think I'm not happy to see you, but it's a little early, isn't it?" Maya had to ask.

"Now, that part wasn't my idea," Kermit promised, nodding past her. She turned around to find their other guests had emerged from the kitchen.

"Hey!" she gasped and smiled as her brother and sister hurried over for a triple hug. "You guys are supposed to be in school today," she couldn't help but point out as they pulled back and she could see their faces again.

"We're sick," Sam informed her, to which Cara added a pitiful cough and some air quotes.

"Well that… that is a real shame," Maya could barely pull off a serious face as she looked to her father. "How hard did they have to twist your arm?"

"Oh, they didn't even need to lay a finger on me," Kermit shook his head. More and more it felt as though he had embraced a policy of indulgence in these last months with his wife and children, bending a few rules for the sake of cramming as many happy memories into the time they had left. None of them could have argued with this if they tried. They didn't want to.

"We made breakfast," Cara proudly announced. Even as she was saying this, she turned a look to Kermit, like there was something else she was even more anxious to say but she needed to know if she could do it. When Kermit tipped his head to the door, Sam and Cara eagerly guided their older sister toward it. "Wait until you see what we brought."

Sam went ahead and opened the door, and there on the porch Maya discovered a few items sitting in wait. There was a closed box, and just behind it, lying on its side, a wrapped but distinctive enough shape that there was no mistaking what it was. The tree… the cut out… It was here, and Maya was stunned into silence, turning to look at her siblings, at their father… It had barely been three days since she'd made the plan with Kermit about this. She knew she'd seen him and Dot talking, back at the birthday party, but this was just so sudden that the turnaround couldn't help but feel impossible. Then again, Kermit and his end run determination these days… Maya could see him calling in a favor with Dot, ensuring that this would be ready, right here, right now, on her birthday.

"Check it out," Sam opened the box, and Maya discovered its contents. The leaves. They were blank, plain wood, but once painted, they could be fixed along with the tree. "Eliza had the idea that you could mail them to the people who are too far away…"

"And I said to add a little thing of paint," Cara added.

"And then they can do their handprint again, and mail it back to you when they're done, then you can do the rest, so it's just like the other tree," Sam continued.

"That is really smart," Maya complimented, feeling a new rumble of emotion in her chest. As birthday presents went, this one was going to be one she would remember for years to come. "Thank you," she told her siblings, her father… Kermit had gotten hold of Elliott now, never so happy as when he held his grandson, and the way he smiled to his firstborn… How many years had she tried to imagine him like this when he had been gone? Now he was here, and it was everything.

Lucas couldn't stick around much longer, as birthday or no he still had to go to class, but he left his wife and son with the knowledge that they were going to have a good day, and he couldn't ask for more.

When he did return, in late afternoon, the house was quiet. Pappy Joe was snoring away on the couch. Making his way up the stairs, Lucas stepped into the nursery to find Maya looking into the crib, where Elliott was also enjoying himself a nap. The wall behind the crib now boasted a tall tree, not so garnished as the one across the hall but dotted with sufficient colorful leaves already as to recall its eye-catching twin. Maya turned a smile to him when she realized he was there.

"It was really the tree," she told him. He came up to join her, peering in at their sleeping boy. "Put him down a little while back, went right to sleep, no fuss."

"Well it's a very good tree," Lucas nodded, making her laugh. "So is this one," he looked up at it now. "When did you get all of those?" he asked, noticing there were more than those leaves she would have gotten from her father, and her brother and sister, and Pappy Joe… There were Abigail, Elizabeth, Eliza, Wyatt… and the Hunters, and _his_ parents…

"We might have made the rounds, after we got the tree up, and our own leaves," Maya revealed. "And I've got this one right here that's just been waiting for your digits," she picked up a bare leaf she'd left nearby.

"Paint me up," Lucas offered out his hand at once. He would have his handprint, his leaf, there for his boy to see when he woke up, whether he could read it or not. As they moved across the hall into their room, Maya gave him a quick rundown of her day with her father and the rest of her painters.

The tree itself had been Kermit's work, top to bottom. It was a big piece, and getting it on to a flat surface to work on had been a challenge already. Once they'd gotten it there though, Kermit had set himself to the painting. He'd pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, where Maya discovered his original sketch. Dot had used this to make the cut-out, and they had to hand it to her, she'd nailed the measurements for the room by eye. But the sketch… Maya had actually loved it on its own, and now it sat on her nightstand, waiting for her to buy a frame. She wanted to hang it, somewhere in the house.

The rest of them had all been intending to help him with the paint, but then once he'd started, there'd just been this impression among them and they knew it was important to him that he should accomplish this on his own. So, they let him do it, all the while making it not so evident that they had taken a step back. Maya, Sam, Cara, and Pappy Joe all made their leaves, and then saw to making one with Elliott's little hand. Maya had gotten just a bit emotional to look at it. She was so familiar with that tiny print they had from the day he was born, and to see how he was growing, closer to a year old than newborn…

Once everyone's hands had been cleaned up again, Sam and Cara had run upstairs to make a list of all the leaves on the first tree, to see how many they would need to send out or pass to others in Austin or Houston. They had continued to add the odd leaf here and there, whenever someone came into their lives they felt belonged on one of those branches. Those garnished branches were a testament to the people they cared for and who cared for them, for Elliott and for this baby coming to join his or her big brother.

With their list gathered, Maya had helped her siblings pack up leaves and paint and address them all, the better to drop these packages off at the post office later on. They also counted off leaves for local deliveries, likely not until after the trip to New York. As they did all this, Pappy Joe saw to Elliott's overall care and entertainment and appeared very satisfied of his task. And Kermit continued to work on the tree. Sometimes, Maya or one of the others would notice his hand trembling just a bit, and they would try and get him to take a break, with a question or an observation.

The tree had been completed shortly after lunch time. Maya was already so amazed by her father's work, but then once the piece had been carried up the stairs and into the nursery, once they'd brought it to sit in its place against the wall… It had taken her a moment to collect herself, finding a whole new set of emotions to hit her all at once, this time the renewal of her approaching grief. In a few months' time, who knew how many… who knew…

This was the point where the plan to hit up the other grandparents had come along. It really felt like the tree was too bare as it was. They had the rest of the Austin Harts' leaves already in the box, with the palms of those four not at the house that day, and Maya had completed them, adding them to the wall with the others, but they'd needed more. So, they had gone off to the Hunter house, and the elder Friar house, where they had added more handprinted leaves to their collection, and Maya had received many a birthday wish.

Once they'd come back to the house and added the new leaves, the tree had really become something to behold. Maya was tired by then, as was Elliott, and as was Kermit. Pappy Joe had driven the Harts home, leaving Maya to go and test a hunch with the baby.

"Okay, what do you think? Nap sound good? Look at that, look," she'd pointed to the tree, and he'd stretched out his little hand toward it, babbling incoherently along. "It _is_ nice, yeah," she'd beamed, pressing a kiss to his cheek before setting him down. When he had actually gone and fallen asleep, she'd felt her face settle in what could only be a bittersweet smile. _It was the tree… Thanks, Dad._

X

_Two days later_

"We are not going to survive this trip," Maya declared as she watched Lucas crouch and dump out the contents of their Elliott suitcase to start again and cull away some of the items. They were leaving for four nights and just about the same number of days if they excluded Monday morning's flight home. After what felt like the sixteenth attempt at packing this thing – when they were meant to head to the airport in twenty minutes, no less – they were still giving off the impression of leaving for several weeks, with the amounts of clothes, and toys, and books, and diapers, and other random items.

"Okay," Lucas raised his hands in a way that either said 'I have a brilliant idea' or 'I surrender.' "How about this? We just pack him for four days, and if we need anything else, we will buy it out there. Yeah?"

"Yeah, okay," Maya nodded, and much as she tried to keep it in, she knew he had caught her small laugh.

"What?" he asked.

"I have never seen you this frazzled before," she explained. "Actually, no, that's not true. There was that one time," she nodded to the crib, where Elliott was having a very relaxed morning, unlike his parents. "But look, see, now we have a plan, we're good," she spoke with renewed confidence, though this was deflated somewhat with a doubt sneaking its way back in. "Right?" she asked. "How do you think he'll do with the plane?"

"I really don't know," Lucas admitted, running a hand through his hair.

"Look, forget I said anything," she waved at him, sensing he was close to spiraling. "We really need to…" she pointed to the suitcase and the things on the floor.

"Right, yes, okay. Packing the suitcase, here goes," Lucas got back to work. "This will be the right time," he vowed.

"Yes, yes it will," she encouraged him, walking around him to get Elliott from the crib. "Please, please, please…" she mumbled, checking… "Oh, not cool, man, not cool," she carried him to the changing table. "You weren't going to warn me about this? Huh?" she shook her head at him, smiling despite herself as her son just looked at her so innocently. "Yeah, that one's on me, you got that look from your mom. Excellent currency, just use it wisely," she whispered.

Against all odds, they were packed and out the door right on time. Technically speaking, they _were_ ahead of time, as they had set their deadline with enough wiggle room so that, if they were really in trouble, well, they wouldn't be missing their flight and bailing on her father. He was downstairs all this time, as he'd spent the night, the better to speed them all on their way to the airport. The whole ride had played like they were working out a plan of attack, as Operation Baby On Board neared. They were all of them experts in the field of calming Elliott down, and while this would be one of if not their biggest challenge yet, they felt up to the task.

"Are you just going to sing him his lullaby up there?" Lucas asked at one point.

"Yeah, why not?" Maya asked him, like she challenged any potential passenger to tell her to stop.

"No reason at all," Lucas assured her, and his smile simply stated how much he loved her for who she was, more and more for who she was as a mother.

They arrived at the airport, thankfully without the need to rush, as this would have been impossible with three quarters of their party. Instead, they peacefully boarded, finding their seats and settling in with a feeling of deep relief. They'd made it.

"Look, we're already making friends," Maya frowned. Lucas turned and spotted an older couple just now turning away, like their annoyance at the sight of a baby on their flight had been challenged by the fixed stare of his mother and they had finally admitted defeat.

"Want me to take first shift?" he asked, turning back to his wife in an effort to pull them back on track, focusing on the fact that they were New York bound, all of them, for the next few days.

"Sure, yeah," Maya smiled, getting herself one quick kiss to the top of Elliott's head before passing him over. "If anyone gives you any airs, you pull out your most Huckleberry face, that's your superpower, mine is more…"

"Intense?" he offered.

"Yeah, let's go with that," she chuckled, brushing at their boy's hair as he settled in his father's arms. "Where'd we put his blanket, we might need it once he discovers the 'wonders of flying.'"

"Should be in the bag there, but I think this might be a job for Opie," Lucas suggested. Maya gave a cheerful gasp, grabbing the bag and soon finding the small long-eared rabbit. It had been one of the many Christmas gifts, and from the moment he'd had him, Elliott had not gone far without his new best pal. "Oh, there's that smile," Lucas laughed, Maya, too, as Elliott received his bunny with great joy.

"You know, he could surprise us all and be a model baby this whole time," Maya settled back in her seat after taking the blanket out and folding it in her lap, just in case.

She turned to look at her father now, finding him in the midst of scribbling in his notebook. He'd been carrying the little thing around for a few weeks now, writing in it every now and then. She never asked him what it was about, a journal, or letters… Whatever it was, she had a fair idea of what it was about, and that was his own business.

"Hey," she quietly spoke up, getting his attention. He looked at her. "You doing okay?"

"I'm on my way to New York, with my daughter, and my grandson, and my son-in-law…" Kermit declared. He was telling her he was doing great.

"Dad…" Maya gave him a pointed look he was growing familiar with. This one said 'I know you're trying to reassure me, but I'm going to need more than that.'

"I slept great last night," he told her. "Woke up feeling about as good as I ever do anymore, maybe better. Everything is fine."

"You need anything, I'll flag someone down for you, alright?" she asked anyway.

"Noted," Kermit smiled.

_TO BE CONTINUED_

* * *

_See you next week! - mooners_


End file.
